That Unseen
by Misako Hashiba
Summary: COMPLETE! AU Cye brings home an old painting that the others aren't all that thrilled with. Is there more to this painting that they thought?
1. Chapter 1

AN: Wow, it's been a looong time since I've written anything for Ronin Warriors. Anyway, as you probably figured out, I will be using the American names for this fic. However, the two OCs that will show up later in the fic will have Japanese names. This is because the boys are still in Japan /anyway, so it fits. Since I am not able to use underscores, thoughts will be in -these-.

It had been a good day of shopping and Cye returned to the house he shared with his four friends. He couldn't wait to show them the one item he picked up that wasn't in some way associated with the ocean. It had been a bargain, too; almost like the shopkeeper was anxious to get rid of it. Oh well. he thought, His loss is my gain.

He stepped inside and called out, "I'm home!"

"Welcome home, Cye!" Ryo had ventured out from the kitchen to greet him. "Come on, we're in the living room."

Cye removed his shoes and followed Ryo into the room. The black haired boy was in the process of passing out drink from the tray that he had seen in his hands. After setting his bags on an empty chair, he turned to his friends who were watching him.

"What'd you get, Cye?"

"Well, I bought a set of fish salt and pepper shakers, an old captain's log and…" He turned back around and lifted a paper wrapped object out of one of the bags. Discarding the brown paper, the teen help up the item for the others to see. "This."

Rowen, Sage, Ryo, and Kento stared at the somewhat large painting. It was about the size of a normal car window; large enough for a person to pull themselves through head first. The other thing they noted was that the subject matter was a room in shades of gray. This room was decorated richly, although in varying degrees of decay. Up against the wall, in the center of the picture, sat a sad looking chair; the faded and frayed light pink and white striped fabric the only thing that was actually colored.

Sage looked back at Cye after having studied the painting. "It's a very… interesting painting, Cye. Though, I wasn't aware you liked such depressing looking scenes."

"I don't, normally. But something about this one caught my eye and I just found myself really attracted to it."

"It looks like it cost a lot. How much did you pay for that?" Rowen took a sip of his drink and arched an eyebrow at the picture.

"I thought it was going to cost a lot, too. The price wasn't listed, so I went and asked the shopkeeper about it. He was rather surprised and told me I was the first to actually express an interest in it." He paused to set the painting against the chair.

"So? What does that have to do with it?"

"Since he kept trying to, unsuccessfully, get someone to buy it--something about people finding it creepy--he said I could just take it, free of charge. I didn't feel right not having to pay, so I insisted on giving him twenty for it."

Kento stood up and stretched, his sports drink having been finished a while ago. "So," he said, "Where are you planning on hanging that?"

"Hmm… I think that empty spot in the hallway would be a perfect place for it."

"You mean that spot right before the bathroom?"

"Yeah. It's about the only place that'll fit it." He started to pick up the painting. "Is that a problem for you, Ryo?"

"I haven't decided yet." He watched as Kento helped Cye carry the painting to the hall, then turned and addressed Sage. "What do you make of it, Sage?"

The blond tapped a finger against his chin in thought. "It's… depressing. That's the feeling it seems to be giving off. If that is what the artist was going for, I do believe he succeeded." He shook his hair out of his face, though it only went back to its original position. "Other than that, I do find it beautifully done."

"It's creepy, is what it is." Rowen looked back and forth between his two companions. "When I was looking at it, there seemed to be someone sitting in that chair."

Ryo waved his hand dismissively. "It was probably just your imagination."

"Either that," Sage interjected, "Or the artist painted it that way on purpose."

Both ignored Rowen's small pout. He knew what he had seen, though part of his mind agreed with Ryo. It probably WAS just his mind playing tricks on him. -I'll go back and check it later, though. Just to be safe.-

By that time, Cye and Kento had returned; the picture hanging a success. Cye retrieved his bags, and then excused himself to put them away and start on dinner.


	2. Chapter 2

About a week later, Rowen was on his way to the bathroom. It was somewhere in the vicinity of two in the morning and he found himself unable to sleep. He couldn't put a finger on the cause, yet, but this was the third time this week he was having sleep troubles. As he neared the bathroom, he suddenly had the feeling that he was being watched. Frowning, he turned to look behind him, but no one was there.

-That was odd…- Continuing on, he passed the painting, noting the soft glow the artist had painted on a discarded doll on the floor near the chair. That caused him to do a double take. -Hey! When was THAT in the painting?-

There was no mistaking the doll for a mind trick. Her entire form had a soft white glow around it. It was then Rowen felt like he was being watched again. Unnerved, he hurried to the bathroom. He wanted to be away from that picture as soon as possible. -What in the HELL was Cye thinking when he bought that!-

The next morning, Cye came into the kitchen and was surprised to see Rowen already there. In different clothes, even.

"Good morning, Rowen. You're up early today?" For the smile he gave the other boy, he received a forlorn look in return. "What's the matter?"

"What… exactly attracted you to that picture in the first place?"

"I don't see how that--"

"Please?"

Cye frowned slightly. Rowen didn't usually interrupt him like that. "…I can't really describe it. I suppose it was the feeling I got when I looked at it. Why do you ask?"

"It gives me the willies. When I was walking towards the bathroom, it felt like I was being watched."

"That was probably just the darkness messing with your mind."

Rowen shot a look at Sage, who had just entered and was getting himself a cup of tea. "An' then I saw a doll on the floor by the chair in the picture. Had a glow of white paint around it."

Kento and Ryo had entered in time for Rowen's last sentence. "'Fraid not, Ro. If there was something like that in there, we would have noticed it when Cye first showed us."

"It WAS there, I tell you. I saw it with my own eyes."

"I think you should quit reading spooky stories before bed."

"You, too, Ryo? Did you even LOOK at the painting this morning?"

"Of course I did. But only because I got the feeling that I HAD to look. Didn't see a doll, though."

Sage seated himself in the chair on Rowen's left and gave Ryo a questioning look. "You "HAD" to?"

"Yeah. It was such an odd feeling. Especially since I haven't felt the need to look at the thing since the first couple of days it's been there." He frowned. "Lately, it's been… Well, I can't quite explain it, but it's creepy."

"Oh, come on, you guys." Cye wagged a fork at them. "Am I the only one here NOT bothered by that silly painting?"

A resounding "Yes!" answered him, Sage's voice not among the others. No, he was too busy drinking his tea and thinking about what Ryo and Rowen had said. He just couldn't believe Rowen's account, for one. The blue haired boy had a habit of late night reading and Sage thought he might have been trying to transpose a part of the book on to the picture. On the other hand, Ryo was quite open with his feelings and not all that good a liar. So the two accounts together were rather troubling. Sage concluded that further study of the subject in question was in order. However, after breakfast, as his stomach was reminding him he hadn't eaten yet.

----

Later that day, Sage finally found the time to stand in front of the painting in the hallway. There wasn't anything about it that struck him as unusual; only the sad, depressing feeling of the piece he noted when he first saw it. No dolls, no feeling like he was being watched, no creepiness… Just a regular picture of a room.

Shaking his head, he turned away from the wall and walked out to the living room. Cye and Kento were already there, though there was no sign of Rowen or Ryo. He sat himself next to Cye and picked up the day's newspaper.

"Did you find anything unusual?" Kento asked, looking up from the manga he was reading.

"No. It's the same as it was the day Cye brought it home."

"Oh." He went back to reading.

"Just as I thought." Cye added. "Though, if it really bothers everyone else that much, I won't be too heartbroken if we take it down."

"Are you sure? You were really excited about having it."

"I'm sure, Sage." He sighed. "Besides, I think it might be starting to affect Rowen and Ryo."

"You mean even more than this morning?"

"Yes. I've seen them do whatever they could to either hurry past it or cover it up so they didn't have to deal with it."

"I think it's cursed."

Sage and Cye turned to look at Kento. He was focused on his book, but it had definitely been his voice that said it. Casting a quick glance at Cye, Sage asked, "Why do you think that?"

"Because," The boy marked his page and sat the book aside. "I hear it call my name when I go to the bathroom at night." Even though he had put the book down, Kento still hadn't looked at his friends.

"How can you be sure it was the picture, though? There aren't any people in it." Cye offered the boy a smile, but it went unseen. "Perhaps you were just not fully awake at the time…?"

Kento shook his head, finally looking at the others. "I was awake. I could maybe buy being half asleep if my name had been whispered. But it wasn't, Cye. It was said in the same tone as you're using to talk to me right now."

"Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"I didn't think you'd believe me. You know how I tend to overreact sometimes."

The other two nodded in agreement. Though both knew Kento didn't like being spooked, the fact that he waited so long to tell them his own experience led them to believe he was telling the truth on the matter. The three of them sat in silence for a while, not really having anything else to discuss. It was sometime later that they heard the front door open and close. As Kento stood to go greet whoever came home, the smell of pizza hit his nostrils. That was followed by two teens, both of which were smiling.

"We picked up some dinner for us." Ryo held up a pizza box and Rowen continued, "Thought since we were out, we might as well bring home something that wasn't giving off creepy vibes."

Cye ignored the comment about his painting; instead he chose to respond to something else. "Where did you two go? It was rather quiet, here, without you."

"Went to the park." Ryo answered. "We just had to get away for a while."

The five of them relocated to the kitchen and settled down to enjoy their dinner.


	3. Chapter 3

Silence. The whole house was at rest, the only sound being a person shifting in their sleep. The overall feeling in the room was peaceful. Soft footsteps slowly padded their way along the thinly carpeted hall, heading towards one of the bedrooms. Once they reached their destination, the door was gently pulled open, almost as if the person behind the action was being as respectful as possible to the person sleeping inside. The footsteps walked in and stopped at the bedside. An invisible hand ghosted across the sleeper's face, causing him to turn his head away from the touch.

He was dreaming, though to him it was real enough. There he was, in the hallway that led to the bathroom and smack dab in the middle of the wall in front of him was that painting. Only, it looked a lot bigger than he remembered. Frowning, he tried to move past the offending object, but found that he just couldn't tear his eyes off of it. He sighed in defeat and moved closer to inspect the picture. There wasn't anything too terribly different about it, other than its size. The chair was still there, with its pink and white fabric, and no sign of ever having been sat in.

On the wall above and to the right of the chair hung a portrait he didn't remember seeing a moment ago. Since the painting had increased in size, he had to stand on his tiptoes to see the smaller painting properly. The person had a striking resemblance to a certain green eyed boy he knew. As he stared at it, not comprehending how his friend could have ended up being painted into a picture he picked up at an antique shop, the person in the portrait stuck his tongue out at him.

He backed up quickly, a small "Eep!" escaping his lips. He didn't like that. He didn't like it at all. The boy wanted to run back to his room, but his legs wouldn't work right. After he looked at his feet to see if there were shackles around his ankles--there weren't--he looked back up just in time to see his friend's image literally step out of its portrait and sit down on the chair. Those green eyes, that seemed to have suddenly taken on an unnatural light, bore into his eyes. He needed to get away; no matter what, he had to get away at any cost. Only, his legs still didn't want to work. A soft sound, almost a murmur, brought his attention back to the figure in the chair. Slowly, the figure smiled, and then opened his mouth as if to say…

"Rowen!"

The blue haired boy sat upright, his eyes wide, and he was breathing heavily. That was NOT the way he wanted to wake up in the morning. After taking a minute to gather his thoughts, he turned to where he believed the voice had come from. "What is it, Ryo?"

Ryo didn't answer. In fact, there was no indication that anybody was in his room at all. Rowen rubbed his eyes and focused on the door. It was shut. That couldn't be right. He distinctly heard Ryo's voice calling his name. Frowning deeply, Rowen disengaged himself from the bed sheets and stood up. About this time, he noticed two things; one, even though the drapes were open, the light being let in was still somewhat dark and two, this wasn't his room.

-Where the hell am I and when did I get here?- He didn't have an answer for himself, so he decided to head out into the hall to see if maybe he was still asleep. -This is probably all still a dream. Yeah, that's gotta be it.- He opened the door and peered out into the darkness. When his eyes had adjusted to the lack of light, he came to the only conclusion he could, -My mind hates me.-

----

In another bedroom, an alarm clock went off. Sage reached over and shut it off before sitting up. He had had a /great/ night's sleep and was glad that he had gone to bed when he did. Today he had planned to help Cye move the painting into the garage. Oh, sure, they probably could have done that the night before, but Cye thought it should finish out the day on the wall. He shook his head at the thought of his friend. That boy had some interesting ideas regarding inanimate objects sometimes.

Figuring it would be a good idea to get dressed and head downstairs for some tea, Sage stood up and walked over to the closet. -Wait a minute, something's not right, here…- He looked around the room suspiciously and wondered why he didn't notice the difference sooner. There was really no excuse for not realizing everything that was wrong with the room. For instance, this particular room was a lot more lavishly decorated than his; he never did own that king sized bed or ever have that elaborate crystal chandelier. This was not good.

"I've got to find the others." Since this was not his room, he decided not to bother opening the closet to see if there were any clothes inside and purposefully walked out, heading down the hallway.

It wasn't long before Sage found the grand looking staircase. He walked over to stand at the balcony railing and looked down. The room below was devoid of all people. The light was trying its best to filter in through the rather dirty, door height windows that were around the front of the house. Sage stared at the windows, lost in thoughts about what lay beyond the large double doors. However, he was suddenly brought of it by a loud clattering to his right. It had sounded like it came from downstairs, so the blond turned and quickly descended the stairs.

----

Meanwhile, Ryo was in one of the small sitting rooms trying to figure out why a particular part of the room looked oddly familiar. Actually, it wasn't really the whole part of the room, so much as one exact object.

"I KNOW I've seen that chair somewhere before…" He went closer to the chair and knelt in front of it. The fabric was faded and the edges of the seat were frayed. As he touched the edge of the chair, an image popped into his mind; a picture with a chair, a small table with a vase on top next to it and a large bronzed frame around the whole thing. His eyes widened in realization. "Oh! This looks exactly like Cye's painting!" But that couldn't be right. That painting was hanging on their wall and he knew for a fact that their house didn't have any of these rich looking things this room held.

Running a hand through his hair, Ryo stood and backed out of the room, not wanting to take his eyes off the chair. Not that it could just hop up and chase him, but in this situation he didn't want to take the chance. Once out of the room, he turned and bolted down the hall. He had to find the others and tell them what he found. On his way, he literally bumped into Kento as the ashy haired boy was hastily exiting a room, knocking each other over.

"Ow!"

"Sorry, Kento. I didn't expect to see you there." He stood and helped his friend up. "You alright?"

He gave Ryo a somewhat sheepish grin. "Yeah. I, uh, was in a hurry."

"Don't like where you woke up?"

"More like what woke me up." He wasn't planning on giving any further information, but Ryo's raised eyebrow prompted him into continuing, anyway. "Something or someone shook me hard enough to bring me out of a deep sleep. That in itself wasn't that bad. No… when I was awake enough to register that I /was/ awake, there was a sword floating next to me. A /sword/. Just FLOATING there!"

"Is that when you ran out of the room?"

"No, that was when it started moving closer to me, as if it was dancing." A slight shudder shook his frame. "Creepy as all get out."

Ryo nodded and decided to change the subject. "I was on my way to find the others. There's something I need to tell them. Come on, we're going to go downstairs to look there." Without waiting for an answer, he walked past his friend and headed for what looked like the main staircase. Kento quickly fell into step next to Ryo, doing his best not to picture the dancing sword.

----

"Man, that's not what I wanted to happen." Cye picked up the pot lids that had spilled on to the floor when he had opened up a cabinet. All he wanted was a pan to cook breakfast in and instead he'd gotten a shower of lids. After returning the lids to their proper place (in a way that wouldn't make them fall once the door was opened), he placed the pan on the stovetop and went over to the fridge. From what he had seen of the house, it still looked like someone lived there and that would mean that the fridge would have at least /some/ food in it. Or so he thought before he had actually opened the fridge door. "Well, damn. That's no good." Staring back at him was a rather empty fridge that appeared to not have been cleaned since… well, he didn't know, but it was definitely a long time ago.

Just as he was returning the pan to the spot he got it from, he heard someone approaching and spun around, clutching the handle of the pan like a bat. He was ready for when the unknown person entered. The kitchen door swung open and Cye had the pan up in the air before he realized just who had come in. He lowered the pan in relief. "Sage!"

"What's going on? You weren't planning on hitting me with that, were you?"

"Yes, actually, I was." He set the pan back down. "I didn't want to be caught off guard without at least something to protect myself with. I mean, we don't even know where we /are, let alone who brought us here."

"IF someone brought us here." After he planted himself in a chair at the round table in the center of the room, he continued, "I heard a loud noise coming from here. Do you know what it was?"

"Ah, yes. Sorry about that. When I went to get that pan out of the cupboard, a bunch of pot lids fell out. Did I wake you?"

"No. I was already up."

"You, too, eh?"

Cye and Sage looked towards the new voice that had entered the room. Rowen was leaning against the doorway, his blue hair was a mess and he looked tired. Cye gave the other boy a soft smile. "Morning, Ro. How did you sleep?"

Rowen shrugged and took a seat across from Sage. "I dunno. Bad, I guess. That stupid painting was in my dream and, actually, so were you." He paused, then shook his head. "Well, it /looked/ like you."

"I see. Well, at least you're awake now, right?"

"Yeah. But I would have liked waking up on my /own/. Oh, by the way, have either of you seen Ryo? I need to ask him something."

"Sorry, I just got here."

"I haven't seen him either. Maybe he's still sleeping."

"Don't count on that Cye." The three turned to the new voice. Ryo had just walked in, Kento entering behind him. They both sat at the table, nodding at the others in greeting.

"YOU!"

Ryo blinked at Rowen, confused. "What about me?"

"That was a pretty awful way of waking me up this morning."

"What are you talking about? I didn't even know if you were /here, let alone what room you were hiding in."

"I KNOW I heard your voice calling my name."

"You must have dreamed it," Sage said, attempting to get his friend to calm down a bit. "Or something else woke you up."

"No-no, I distinctly heard his voice." He frowned in thought. "At least, I could have sworn it was Ryo's. Damn. Sorry Ryo, I guess it wasn't you after all."

"That's alright, Ro. I think it's the atmosphere in here that's making us go crazy."

Kento snorted. "Nooo that would be that stupid painting."

"Oh!" Everyone looked at Ryo. "That reminds me. Guess what I found upstairs while looking for you guys."

"A way out of here?"

"People?"

"Dirty socks?"

Ryo rolled his eyes. "Hardly. I found this one room and part of it looked familiar. VERY familiar."

"So you think we've been here before?"

"Not quite, Cye. More like because we've been walking past it for a week or so."

Rowen stared at Ryo, his mouth slowly opening as he realized exactly what Ryo was talking about. "You found the room that was in the painting!"

"Bingo. If it hadn't been for that chair, I never would have come to that conclusion."

The boys sat there, taking in that information. This did not bode well for them. A few minutes later, someone's stomach growled. Four pairs of eyes turned to Cye.

"What's for breakfast, Cye?"

Cye cast a look at the fridge before giving Sage an answer. "Nothing, I'm afraid."

"WHAT!"

Sage and Cye winced a bit from the volume of the three man shout. Once they had recovered, Cye gestured to the fridge. "There is no food in the fridge, at all, and I haven't been able to find the pantry."

"Oh hurrah." Rowen let his head fall on to the table, the action making a dull thudding sound echo slightly around the room.

"I think," Kento started, "that while we try to figure out where we are, we should also try to find something we can use as food."

"Good idea, Ken. We should probably split up into groups, just in case."

Sage nodded at Ryo's comment. "Yes, on group could look for food while the other searches for clues to our whereabouts."

"Then it's decided." Ryo paused. "Wait, who'll be in which group?"

"Cye should probably look for food, since he's the cook."

"I'll help him." Ryo smiled at Cye before addressing the others again. "The rest of you can go exploring."

Sage stood, nodding once at Ryo. "Very well, then. Let's meet back here in about an hour to compare notes."

"Sure, sure." Kento was the next to stand. "Though we can't really trust the clocks in this house, can we? We'll have to go by the sunlight."

"Or," Sage replied, "I could just go get my alarm clock."

Rowen lifted an eyebrow at the blond. "You have your alarm clock here? How'd you manage that?" He only got a shrug in response.

"Anyway, let's get this going so we can get an idea of where we are." Kento clapped his hands together and strode towards the door.

Rowen and Sage followed, leaving Ryo and Cye to plan out how they will go about their search.


	4. Chapter 4

While the meeting in the kitchen was going on, there was another happening in one of the back rooms on the third floor of the house. This particular room was one of the larger ones; two queen sized beds, each with a chandelier hanging over it, fit comfortably inside with room to spare. The woven tapestries on the walls depicted scenes of royal courtiers, animals being hunted and a horseback battle. Also decorating the walls were crossed swords, a dagger here and there and, on the opposite wall, a single wooden staff.

At the double sized bay window near the back of the room was a white painted wooden table, its base made from wrought iron formed into scroll work. There were two chairs on either side of the table, both overstuffed and covered in some plush fabric or other. One chair's fabric was a dusty blue color while the other's was a dark rose. These chairs were not empty.

On the right, in the blue chair, sat a young man. The sleeves of his dark blue kimono were pushed up so they wouldn't interfere with the pages of his book. In front of him, on the table, was a pale pink rose patterned teacup and saucer. The cup had been abandoned for the book and the reader could not have cared about its contents at the moment.

On the left, occupying the pink chair, was another young man. He was dressed in the same dark blue kimono, though instead of a book, he held a teacup and saucer in his hands. Presently he was looking out the bay window, not really paying attention to what he was seeing. After a moment, he turned to look at the other boy. "Aren't you finished with that, yet? You've been reading it for years."

"Almost." came the reply, though he did not look up. "Just a have a few more chapters to go."

"Do you think they are awake by now?"

"Two of them should be."

"You couldn't resist, could you?"

He put the book down and laughed. "Of course not! It was too good an opportunity to pass up!"

"We should go greet them, then. I'm sure our guests are curious about their situation."

"Mm… But we should have some more fun first."

"You and your fun." He shook his head and stood up. "As you wish, though I may not have as much as you."

"I know." He stood as well. "You need to let loose sometimes, Shi. And NOT with your staff, either."

Shi ignored the comment and started for the door. "Which floor are you taking?"

"Second."

The slow grin told Shi all he needed to know about why his companion had chosen that floor. "Alright. I will catch up with you later." With that, Shi reached the door and disappeared.

The other boy rubbed his hands together gleefully before disappearing as well. He was going to enjoy this immensely.

----

It had been decided that the three of them would each take a portion of the floor, for simplicity's sake. Rowen had the west end, Kento the east and he had the center. Sage wasn't sure, exactly, what he was looking for; none of them truly did. Picking one of the doors before him, he walked up to it and turned the handle. It came off in his hand; not what he was expecting to happen. He bent down to examine the spot where the handle had been and fingered it slightly. If he touched the mechanism correctly, he could get the door to open despite being handle-less. After a moment of fiddling with the mechanism, Sage heard the telltale click and opened the door fully. Inside, it appeared to be some sort of playroom. A very underused playroom, but a playroom nonetheless. He stepped inside and took his time to take in his surroundings. In the left hand corner, by the window, was a very faded pink wooden dollhouse. Sage could tell, just from where he stood, that it hadn't been played with in at least fifty or so years. On the other side of the window was a small rusted over train set. He could see the cobwebs covering its smokestack thickly. The walls were decorated with cutesy paintings of animals and children playing in fields of flowers. As for the floor itself, he couldn't tell if the thick carpeting had a pattern on it or not, thanks to the heavy layer of dust that covered it.

Venturing further into the room, Sage turned to move the door so he could see what was behind it. There wasn't much, save for a medium sized rubber ball. The markings on the ball were faded, though he could easily see that they had been stripes. As for the last corner of the room, he noted a child sized easel that was currently supporting a filthy looking canvas. Curious, Sage walked over and leaned down to look at it. -Blank.- He straightened back up. -Guess no one felt like painting at that time.- There didn't seem to be anything in this room that could help them out. It was time to try another room. Sage was halfway out the door before he remembered that he still held the door handle. Not quite sure what to do with it, he opted for leaving it against the wall just inside the door. If anything, at least he'll know which room he had already tried.

Unbeknownst to Sage, as soon as his back had turned, the door handle had risen into the air and floated out of the room behind him. He was busy exploring his second room. This one was just as filthy as the playroom, though the toys scattered about, geared towards much younger children, were not as covered by dust and cobwebs. There was a series of cribs along one of the longer walls so Sage walked over to see if there was anything of interest in them. Choosing one that had a rather broken front, he looked in and his expression became confused.

"How did /that/ get there?" On the rotted mattress lay a shiny, dustless, brass door handle. Sage picked it up and turned it over in his hand. "I /know/ I placed this on the floor in the last room." As he peered at the handle, an image began to form. Frowning, Sage held it closer to his face, trying to get a better look at it. He didn't have to try for very long. A second or so later a very clear face appeared. It was definitely not Sage's. In fact, he didn't recognize it at all. The longer he stared at it, the more the face seemed to get bigger. Just as he thought he had stared at it enough, the strange face grinned widely and mouthed 'hello Sage' at him. He dropped the handle in surprise and decided that he was finished with this room. That handle would just have to stay there as he was not inclined to place it back where he had put it in the first place.

The next room Sage tried was smaller than the other two and he noted absently that it was also slightly colder. There were portraits hanging on the walls, the people in them all wearing black in some way or other. However, what had truly captured his attention was a large, dark stained wood and brass double coffin at the very back of the room, in front of the window. The lid was open and Sage really had no desire to see if anything was inside, even /if/ his curiosity was screaming at him. He was about to turn away and leave the room when some movement caught his eye. Scanning the coffin from where he stood, he tried to see where the movement had come from. He saw nothing. Sage shrugged and turned, heading for the door. When he was almost to the threshold, he felt a very distinct tapping on his shoulder. But as he spun around to see who or what it was, there was absolutely no one behind him. Unnerved, Sage quickly left the room. He was beginning to think they shouldn't have split up after all.

----

Rowen looked about the room he was in. There wasn't anything spectacular about it, just a full sized bed, a spindly legged desk and a couple of paintings. He walked over to one of the paintings and looked at it. It's very well done, he noted, And very pretty. Rowen studied the young woman featured, loving how the artist managed to get her eyes to reflect so much life. She was wearing a very pale pink dress that looked white and it was obvious that she had been to either a ball or just a really formal affair. Her long dark hair had been styled into ringlets and dusted with what appeared to be glitter. If Rowen had the pleasure to meet this young lady in person, he was fairly certain he would have spent as much time with her as possible.

On the opposite wall was the only other painting in the room. This one featured a man that looked a few years older than the young lady. He was wearing a smart looking black suit, with a thin black tie and a black bowler hat. His beard and moustache were neatly trimmed. Upon closer inspection, the man appeared to be scowling. -Actually…- Rowen leaned in closer. -It looks like he's scowling at /me/.- Indeed, the man's eyes were cast downward, looking straight at Rowen. He backed up with his hands in front of him. "Hey, man, don't look at me like that. I'm just visiting." As soon as he finished his last sentence, Rowen realized how silly he sounded talking to a painting. However, it was still scowling at him and he didn't like it. "Alright, alright. I'm leaving." When he stepped out of the room and shut the door behind him, the man's scowl changed into a neutral expression and his gaze was focused on the painting across from him.

Now that he was out of that room, Rowen felt a bit more relaxed. He noticed a small door across from the room he had just left and assumed it to be a closet. Curious as to what might be in there, he opened the door. Or, rather, he tried to. "Who in their right mind locks a /closet?" He stared at the door for a moment before shaking his head and moving on to one of the larger doors nearby. Just as his hand touched the knob, he heard the sound of a door opening somewhere behind and to the right of him. When he looked back the way he had come, he saw the closet door standing wide open. "Now wait just a minute…" Rowen walked back over to the closet just in time for it to slowly shut itself. He tried the knob again, but it was still locked.

Shuddering at the feeling that crawled along his spine, he quickly retreated back to the door he had been about to try. Reaching for the knob, he found that this door was unlocked and proceeded to walk inside. "Heeeeey…. Now THIS is my kind of room!" All along the walls, from floor to ceiling, were rows and rows of books. There was even a handy sliding ladder resting on the right side of the room. For the first time since being in the unknown house, Rowen felt totally comfortable. He slowly strode along the left wall, content to just take in all the different titles that were on the shelves.

As he moved from the left wall to the back wall, a dull THWUMP came from behind him. Turning to see what made the sound, Rowen saw a rather large, thick volume lying open on the floor. Thinking he may have accidentally caused the book to fall by walking past it, he went over intending to, at the very least, shut the thing so it didn't incur any more damage. The book was open to a page somewhere near the beginning and he saw that it appeared to be a collection of stories of some sort. This intrigued him so he knelt in front of the book and started reading.

While he was doing that, a small but long, metal object slowly slithered into the room. It was heading towards Rowen, who was too engrossed in the book to notice. He had just gotten to the part about this one lady's fiancé murdering the lady's two brothers in a jealous fit (something about how the boys spent too much time with her and how they looked at her), when something wrapped itself around his left wrist. Rowen jerked his hand in reflex, only to see what it was a moment later.

"How the hell did this necklace get around my wrist?" He removed the necklace from his wrist and held it up. "Hmm…it's a locket." Opening it up, the image of a pretty young lady stared at him. She was dressed in a casual blue dress and her straight dark hair rested over her shoulders. Even though she was dressed differently and her hair was styled another way, he could still tell that it was the same person in the painting he had seen earlier. On the other side of the locket was a picture of the man, only this time dressed in gray. His picture had a many times scribbled 'X' over it. "Didn't like him at all, did you Lady?" He didn't get an answer. Then again he wasn't expecting one. Shaking his head, he shut the book, put the locket around his neck and stood up. It was time to try a different room.

Out in the hall, Rowen spotted a pull string dangling from the ceiling that he hadn't noticed before. "That must lead to the attic." Against his better judgment, he walked over to the pull string and tugged on the painted porcelain knob that the string was attached to. This action brought down a set of wooden stairs. That didn't bother him. No, what made him scream and jump back was a skeleton hanging from somewhere above by a rope. Rowen gave the thing a glare once his heart had slowed down a bit. "Thank you /ever/ so much, skeleton. I SO needed that heart attack today."

"You're welcome."

"Wha-!" He stared, wide eyed, at the skeleton. It raised a hand and waved at him. Rowen screamed and raced down the hall like his life depended on it.

If a skeleton could smirk, this one would have. Since it did its job of scaring the blue haired teen, it rose back up into the ceiling, the stairs closing after it.

----

"What a break to find this bathroom here." Kento commented to himself as he washed his hands. "A /working/ one, at that."

This was the third or fourth room he has checked out, which was a lucky find. He would have exploded if he had to wait a few minutes more. After finishing with his hands, he looked around the room. It was a lot cleaner than the other parts of the house he had seen. The light had actually worked, which was simply amazing to him, so he did not need to leave the door open while he did his thing. The shower's semi-transparent pale pink curtain was drawn back and the light from the fixtures shone off of the tiles. Kento thought that this indicated that the room had been cleaned recently.

There seemed to be a closet near the claw footed tub and Kento went over to see what was inside. As he neared it, he heard his name whispered from somewhere around him. Ignoring it as a possible trick of the mind, he continued toward the closet. He tried the handle and the door opened easily. All that was inside were clean fluffy towels and some rolls of toilet paper. -Why would a seemingly abandoned house have clean towels and toilet paper?- His only response was his name being whispered again. Frowning, he listened carefully. His name was repeated several times and soon he realized that the voice responsible for it sounded exactly like the one that had called his name back home.

It was then that he noticed a tapping mixing in with the whispering. Kento blinked. It sounded like someone tapping on a window. That is, if there /was/ a window in the room. There wasn't and Kento turned around, slowly, to face the only thing in the room that could possibly make the same sound; the mirror above the sink. Staring back at him was not his reflection, but that of someone around his age. This person had short black hair and bright light brown eyes that seemed to glow. He or she was staring at him, grinning. Kento slowly started backing up towards the door, not trusting the mirror person to stay there if he turned around. Just before he made it to the door, the reflection cheerfully called out, "See you later, Kento!" Kento screamed and bolted out of the room.

----

-Thank all the gods that are listening that I was able to get away from that.- It wasn't every day he had a skeleton talk to him. Not that he wanted one to talk to him/period, either. At least he was safe here. -As safe as I can be, that is.-

"Rowen? Why are you laying on the floor?"

Rowen opened his eyes and found himself looking up at Sage, who was standing over him. "Uh…" He sat up, turning to rest his back against the balcony railing. "I dunno if you would believe me."

Sage raised an eyebrow. "In this house? Please. I mean, after the incident this morning and what you said happened with the picture back home… How could I NOT believe you?"

"I guess you're right."

"So why were you laying on the floor?"

"I had to run for my life. Well, I wasn't exactly /threatened/ but still. The first room I went to had these two paintings, right? And the one of a man was scowling at me. It just felt creepy, so I left. There was a closet in the hall, but it was locked." He paused to glance back down the hall. "When I went to try the next room, I heard a door open and shut. I turned around and that closet door was open."

"Was there anything inside?"

"I didn't get to see. When I got back over there, the door shut again."

"Interesting. Is that all you saw?"

"No, there was also the--"

"GUYS!" Sage and Rowen turned toward the direction the voice had come from. Kento ran up and dropped to his knees in front of them, panting.

"Kento, what happened?"

"I…I saw… Someone… In the… The mirror…"

Rowen gave his friend a worried look. "What did they look like, Ken?"

Kento shook his head to indicate that he would answer in a moment. When he had his breathing under better control, he said, "They had short black hair, glowing brown eyes and they looked to be my age."

"Boy or girl?"

"I don't know, Sage. I couldn't tell and I didn't really care to get a closer look. But the voice sounded masculine, so I suppose it was a boy."

Sage didn't blame him. He didn't think he would want to get closer either. "Did either of you find out anything that might be able to help us?"

"I found the bathroom, but that's about it, sorry."

Rowen grinned. "I found the library. Interesting book in there, too. You see…" He went on to recount his experiences, showing off the locket when he got to that part of the story.

"She /is/ really pretty." Kento said, after seeing her picture.

"Indeed." Sage went next, telling them about the moving door handle and the face he saw in it.

Kento shuddered at hearing about the face. He wasn't very fond of strange faces showing up in shiny, reflective objects. Since the others had told their sides, he told them his. He then suggested that they go back down stairs and share this information with Cye and Ryo.


	5. Chapter 5

After the three of them had left, Cye and Ryo split up to explore the first floor. Cye opted to stay around the kitchen to try to find the pantry while Ryo headed off towards where he thought the living room was. The black haired boy had no clue what to look for, but he was going to have as much fun as possible exploring. -If I didn't, I think I'd go crazy or something.- he thought, -I mean, why be miserable just because we're stuck in a weird house?-

His first order of business was checking out a dark wooden chest he had noticed when he and Kento had walked to the kitchen that morning. It was sitting against a wall by what he guessed was the front door. He almost missed it the second time, as it sort of blended in with the dark color of the carpet and wall behind it. Just how he had managed to see it the first time was a mystery, however, now that he was in front of it, he put that thought out of his mind and opened the chest. The inside of the chest looked almost black and Ryo nearly thought it was empty. When he was about to close the lid, something shiny caught his eye and he leaned over more to get a better look. What he saw were eyes looking back at him.

"GYAA!" He jerked back, landing on the floor and scooting away from the chest. -Just what I needed in the morning; a heart attack.-

As if on cue, a glowing figure slowly rose from the chest. Ryo's eyes got wide as he took in what was before him. The first thing he noticed was that the figure was a human wearing a gray tuxedo and white gloves. The second thing he noticed was that it was glowing a soft green. As much as Ryo wanted to look away, he found himself not able to do so. Stepping out of the chest, closer to him, the figure bent and held out a hand.

"N-no thanks! I can get up on my own." He scrambled to his feet, still keeping a wary eye on the man before him.

The man straightened and opened up the door. Outside, Ryo saw nothing but miles and miles of gravestones surrounded by a sky of white nothingness. He was even less thrilled when the glowing man grabbed his arm and moved to throw him out the door.

"CYE! HELP!" Ryo dug his heels in the carpet and struggled as much as he could; anything to make throwing him out as difficult as possible until Cye arrived.

In a room just off to the left of the kitchen, Cye finally found what he surmised was the pantry. There were stacks of cans and jars lining the rickety wooden shelves, most not having labels on them. Silently rejoicing the discovery, he carefully picked up a jar and held it up for inspection. -Yuck… This looks /rancid/.- He should have known better. This was, after all, an abandoned house. There wasn't likely to be any unspoiled food about anytime soon. -Great, so we get to starve to death in here.- He put the jar back on the shelf and walked back into the kitchen. -At least we'll be wearing comfortable clothes when we do.- The thought wasn't all that comforting to him. He would have preferred being able to change out of his pajamas, but that wasn't an option right now unless he wanted to parade about in his undershorts.

Cye thought it would be best to join Ryo and started heading toward the living room. As he neared the kitchen door, he heard Ryo calling out to him for help. Not liking how panicked his friend sounded, he broke into a run. When he got to where Ryo was, the glowing man had the boy at the threshold and was shoving against him. Ryo, for his part, was clinging to the doorframe, repeatedly shouting for the man to leave him alone. Cye rushed forward and grabbed the man by the back of his jacket. Using as much of his strength as he could, the green eyed teen yanked the man back, breaking his contact with Ryo.

Ryo relaxed and let go of the doorframe. After a quick moment of rest, he slammed the door shut and went to help Cye. "Quick! Help me shove him back into that chest!"

"Right!"

Together, they pulled and shoved the man over to the chest. He resisted, of course, but eventually they managed to stuff him back in. Ryo forcefully shut the lid just as one of the man's hands came up to grab the edge of the chest. The cry of pain and a loud crunch made Cye feel sick to his stomach, effectively ruining whatever appetite he had left.

"Thanks, Cye. I thought I was going to be out in that graveyard for good."

Cye smiled at him and nodded. "You're welcome. I'm glad I heard you yelling, otherwise I might not have gotten here in time."

"No one is more grateful than me about that." He shook his head and looked back at the now shut front door. "Did you /see/ what the sky looked like?"

"Yes. It's almost like being in another dimension or something. I'm glad we don't have to constantly look at it."

"Me, too." Ryo looked back over at the chest and then frowned. "Hey…Wasn't that guy's fingers sticking out a moment ago?"

Cye looked over to see what Ryo was talking about. "You're right. I wonder why they disappeared."

"What disappeared?"

Ryo turned to address the newly arrived Rowen. "Some guy's fingers. They were sticking out from the lid of that chest, there."

Sage and Kento stepped up behind Rowen. Sage nodded at Ryo and Cye and said, "We heard the commotion from the second floor. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah. Some guy in a gray suit tried to shove me out the front door. Thankfully Cye was able to get to me before he did."

Kento cocked his head to one side. "Why would someone want to throw you out? I mean, aren't we the only people in here?"

"Don't forget your experience in the bathroom, Kento."

"Oh yeah." He gave Rowen a look and then shuddered slightly at the memory. "Thank you SO much for reminding me, Ro."

"Anytime."

Cye looked back and forth between Kento and Rowen. "What experience?"

"I saw someone in the mirror. Remember when I said I heard someone calling my name back home?" Cye nodded and he continued, "Same person. Freaked me out. He sounded so… So… /Cheerful/ when I ran out, too. I'd rather not think of it."

Sage patted Kento on the shoulder, then turned to Cye. "Any luck finding some food?"

"Yes, actually. I finally found the pantry, however, I don't trust anything that's in there. I looked at one of the jars and whatever was in it looked spoiled. I don't think we're going to be eating at all while we're here."

Kento groaned. "We're /doomed!"

"Not necessarily."

Where had that voice come from? The five young men looked around for the speaker, but they couldn't see anyone nearby. For all they knew, the voice could have come from the ceiling. That thought made Ryo look up quickly. He was relieved, though, to find that there wasn't someone up there looking down at them. Ryo gave the surrounding area another look over before asking, "Where are you?"

There was a soft chuckle before the voice spoke again. "In the kitchen."

The group looked at each other before nearly stampeding into the kitchen. Sitting at the table and sipping from a blue patterned tea cup, was a young man in a blue kimono. He sat his cup on the saucer on the table and turned to smile pleasantly at his guests. Kento's mouth opened and shut a couple of times before he was able to find his voice. "I-It's YOU!"

His friends gave him curious looks, taking in his expression and the finger that was pointed at the young man. Sage quirked an eyebrow. "Is THAT who you saw, Kento?"

"Yeah. There's no mistaking it. At all. Ever."

"Actually…" the young man started, "I don't know what you're talking about." He gave them an apologetic smile. "I just got here."

"Bull."

Cye nudged Kento in the arm with his elbow and then addressed the boy. "We can discuss that later. Right now, we'd like to know who you are."

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry." He bowed, feeling embarrassed. "I am Takahashi Shi, though it will be easier if you just call me Shi."

"Nice to meet you." Cye smiled and introduced himself and his friends. "Are you the only other person here?"

"No-no, Cye. Remember that guy that tried to toss me out the door? Here's here, too."

Shi blinked. "You mean the butler? But he doesn't roam around free."

"I know. I, uh, opened the chest by the door." Ryo rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Not gonna open weird chests again, though. Learned my lesson on that."

"You are lucky he didn't succeed." Shi shook his head. "You would not have been able to get back inside."

"Is that where all those gravestones came from?" Shi's answering nod made him shiver. Yes, Ryo was /very/ glad he was able to keep from getting thrown out the door.

It was about then that Rowen remembered why they had gone into the kitchen in the first place. "So, what did you mean when you said we weren't necessarily doomed?"

"Oh, that. Well, I know the food in the pantry is bad, but that doesn't mean you have to go hungry." He stood up and gestured for everyone to take a seat. Once they had done so (some more quickly than others), he left the room and returned with a tea cart stacked with plates of food.

"Where in the world did you get all that?" Ryo looked at the cart, marveling at how hot and fresh the food looked.

Shi chuckled softly. "Don't worry about that." He passed out the plates and started to put the cart away. "Just enjoy your breakfast."

After Shi had left the room again, Sage looked at the others and shrugged. "I don't think the food would be poisoned. I mean, he /could/ have let us starve."

"That's true." Kento took a bite from his plate and closed his eyes at how delicious it was. "Mm…"

That seemed to be the cue for everyone else to dig in. When Shi came back in, his guests were all happily devouring their food. He nodded once to himself and faded from view; the others too busy to notice.

----

He was leaning on the railing of the second floor landing, watching the doorway to the living room. He didn't expect anyone to come through any time soon, but he knew there were people beyond that point. After a few moments, he became aware of someone behind him. Without turning around, he said, "So how are they getting on?"

"Eating. They thought they were going to starve, considering how the pantry is."

"Mm." He turned to lean his back against the railing. "Did you get to scare them at all?"

Shi shook his head. "No. They scared themselves, really." He shrugged at the other's questioning look. "One of them unintentionally freed the butler."

Both eyebrows shot up. "And he managed to stay inside?"

"Good grip on the door and his friend helped, I believe."

"I see. Well," He stood up and jerked his chin towards the stairs. "Let's go see how breakfast is going."

"Okay." Shi smiled and followed his companion down the stairs and back toward the kitchen.

----

Sage had just finished telling Ryo and Cye about his jaunt upstairs when their host returned. At first no one realized there was an extra person in the room. The two of them stood on either side of the table, smiling at their guests. Kento was the first to notice anything different and dropped his fork in surprise. After that, the other four were looking back and forth between their two hosts.

"Y-you cloned!"

"Rowen, sit /down/." Sage gave his friend a look and yanked him back in to his chair by an arm. "I am one hundred percent sure he did /not/ clone himself."

"…Did you?" Kento asked one, not sure which they had been talking to before.

"Nope! No clones here!" The one on the left said, cheerfully.

A little /too/ cheerfully for him. Kento eyed that boy accusingly. "So YOU were the one who scared me."

The accused put his hands up in the air, still smiling. "Guilty. It was funny, though."

"It was NOT!"

"So that was what he meant." Shaking his head, he addressed his double. "Hito, don't tease the guests. They won't want to stay again if you do that."

Hito chuckled, but put his hands down. "Aw, you're no fun, Shi."

Shi rolled his eyes and apologized for his brother's antics. His apology was met by varying degrees of acknowledgement. It was about then that he noticed the necklace around Rowen's neck. "Excuse me, Sir, but where did you get that?"

Rowen looked down at where Shi was pointing and shrugged. "In the library. It wrapped itself around my wrist."  
Hito raised an eyebrow at that. "How'd you manage to get it to do that?"

"I'm… not too sure about that. I was just minding my own business reading a book that fell to the floor."

"What book was that?" Shi asked, exchanging a look with his brother.

"Seemed to be a collection of stories. The page it fell open to was about this guy who killed his girl's brothers out of jealousy. Pretty interesting read, if you ask me."

Hito shook his head at the questioning gaze his brother gave him and said, "Well, where were you before the library?"

"I don't see what that has to do with the necklace, but I was in this one bedroom with two pictures on the walls."

"I thought so."

"You thought so /what?" Sage was not really sure what was going on, though he had the feeling that he probably didn't want to know.

"It seems she trusts you, Sir."

Rowen looked over at Shi and raised an eyebrow. "Th' girl in that picture trusts me? How the hell do you figure that?"

"She gave you her necklace."

"You must have figured it was her's, right? I mean, you DID look inside it, yeah?"

"Well, yeah." He decided he didn't like it when they both spoke one right after the other. Since they sounded just about exactly the same, it was hard to tell who was speaking when. Not that he knew how to tell them apart in the first place, but that wasn't the issue at the moment. "Though I don't see how that automatically makes it /her/ who gave it to me."

"It wasn't either of us, or the butler; he wouldn't have a reason to. And it /certainly/ wasn't the guy in the other picture. He'd just as soon as kill you than give you something that belonged to her. So, that makes her the only one who could have given it to you."

"A PICTURE would /kill/ him over a /necklace? Are you REALLY sure about that?"

Shi turned to Cye and nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. He wasn't the… most understanding about things when the lady was concerned."

"Excuse me." Shi and Hito looked over at Kento. "Do you think there are some extra clothes about? I'm getting a tad tired of being in my pajamas." Sage, Cye, Rowen and Ryo all agreed.

"Besides," Rowen added, "I hate not having pockets." He made a face at the thought.

"Yes, Sir. I can get fresh clothes for you straight away. Hito, will you clean up the dishes for me while I do that?"

"Sure thing." He grinned and started gathering up empty plates while Shi led the others back to the rooms they spent the night in.


	6. Chapter 6

A/n: This chapter gave me problems. Xx It didn't want to be written, but I managed to get it finished. It's a bit shorter than previous chapters, but at this point it couldn't be helped.

Sage estimated the time to be somewhere around one, maybe two, in the afternoon. Their hosts had left to do their own thing right after the five of them had been given a change of clothes and now they were left to their own devices. He wasn't sure whether he would rather have their company or not, but they /had/ told them they were around if they needed help, so at least there was that. At the moment, they were all lazing about in the library; even Kento had found something to read.

Rowen was scouring the left hand shelves for the book he had been reading earlier, Cye had found a fancy covered book that gave Sage the impression it was a romance novel and Ryo was on the sliding ladder on the right side of the room. As for Sage, he was currently curled up in one of the room's several overstuffed chairs. He had found, quite by chance, a volume of poetry. They mostly seemed to be about love and heartache, but that didn't bother Sage all that much. He flipped a page over, thinking about how good a cup of tea would taste right then.

"Damn. It's no use."

"Still can't find it, Rowen?"

"No, and it's irritating me." He looked over at Ryo, who was now sitting on the ladder and facing him. "Did you find anything interesting over there?"

"Nah. There's some cobwebs, though."

Rowen looked back over at the shelf he was in front of and blinked. The spine of one of the books was softly glowing; almost like a dim light was being shined on it. Intrigued, Rowen pulled the book from the shelf and dropped it on his foot. "Ow!"

Cye glanced up at him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Dropped a book on my foot." He bent down and shifted the volume off his toes, only belatedly noticing that it landed open to a familiar looking page. "Hey, I found it!"

"Really?" Ryo descended the ladder and rushed over. "How'd you find it?"

"Well… I saw the spine glowin' and I pulled it off the shelf. Didn't know it was heavy, though."

"Oh." He knelt and examined the page. "Is this an old murder mystery?"

"I think so. Though it may or may not have been based on a true story."

After marking his spot, Cye shut his book and headed over to the two boys on the floor. "What did you say that story you were reading was about, again?"

"Some dude got all jealous of his fiancée's brothers and killed them. Actually, that story just happens to be on the page the book fell open to."

"Interesting."

While his friends all huddled around the book, Sage had gotten the feeling like he was being watched and looked around the room to see if he could find where it was coming from. He couldn't exactly pinpoint it, so he shut his book and stood up, placing the volume on the side table next to the chair. As he stretched out his legs, he happened to glance over at the door. Something had moved out in the hall, he was sure of it. -It couldn't have been either of the twins, since they're full bodied people. That looked like an arm and a couple of legs.- Stepping around the group of boys on the floor, Sage walked over to and looked up and down the hall. There wasn't anything visible, now, that could have caused what he saw. Still, he was curious and before stepping out the door, he turned to the others. "I'll be right back."

After getting some form of acknowledgement, he exited the library and started walking to his right. -This is the direction I saw that thing going. I wonder what's down here…- There were at least four other doors that he could see and none of them were presently standing open. He wasn't expecting them to be, but sometimes people don't like to close their doors. Stopping in front of the nearest door, Sage tried the knob and found it to be locked. -Not surprising. Probably housing something important.- Moving on to the next door, he found that this one was unlocked and opened it. At first, he just stood at the threshold, not wanting to be rude by walking in. He snorted. -I don't know why it /would/ be rude, this is practically our house, now, too.- Before he could completely decide whether or not to enter, the sound of a door slowly creaking open caught his attention. He turned his head to look back down the way he had come and saw a man in a black suit and a black hat standing in a doorway. The man was leaning against the frame, watching him, and Sage did not like the look he was getting.

Thinking the man didn't like that he had opened this random door, Sage shut it, then turned and bowed to the man in apology. When he straightened, the man was halfway to him. He blinked and asked, "Is there something wrong?"

There was no answer as the man continued to advance on him. His eyes bore into Sage with fierce determination. Sage stepped to the side as the man finally reached him. He quickly darted past the man, intending to go back to the library. However, the man was quicker and roughly grabbed him by the arm, holding the blond in place.

"Let me go." He gave the man his best icy stare, but he seemed to be unaffected. Trying to jerk his arm out of the man's grasp had no effect, either. "Let me go, NOW." He jerked his arm, again, on his last word for emphasis, but the man's grip didn't change.

Grinning slowly, the man yanked Sage closer to him, knocking the boy against his chest. The resulting cold he felt traveled up his spine, making him shiver. He scrunched his eyes shut and felt himself sink to his knees. Giving one last great shudder, Sage collapsed fully on the floor.

----

Cye shut his book with a soft 'thwup' and set it aside. "Sage has been gone for a while; shouldn't he have been back by now?"

"I think he went to explore something." Ryo said, flipping though the pages of an old medical book. "Probably lost track of time."

"You think we should look for him? Just in case?"

"Cye, bud, relax." Kento patted his friend's arm. "He knows how to take care of himself."

The brunette raised an eyebrow. "In /this/ house?"

"… Good point."

Rowen shook his head at their conversation and returned a book to its spot on the shelf in front of him. "Besides," he added, "I'm getting bored."

"Then it's settled; we look for Sage."

Ryo and Kento put their books away and followed Rowen and Cye out of the library and into the hall. Looking both ways, none of them saw any sign of Sage. Someone suggested going downstairs to look, so the group headed towards the stairs.

"You don't think he found the so-called 'butler', do you?"

Ryo made a face at the thought. "I hope not. We'd never see him again if he did."

"Well," Cye started, "maybe he just went to the kitchen for a bite."

"Good idea, Cye. I'm getting hungry myself." Rowen grinned and rubbed his stomach.

"Yeah, me, too."

"You're almost /always/ hungry, Kento."

Rolling his eyes, Ryo shook his head and started down the stairs. When they got to the front door, sounds could be heard coming from the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen, they were relieved to see that Sage was sitting at the table, sipping from a mug and reading the paper. Where he got a newspaper from, they didn't know; they were just glad nothing had happened to him.

"So /there/ you are." Rowen sat down on Sage's right. "Forgot about us, didn't you?"

Sage glanced over at the blue haired boy for a second before going back to his paper. "Mm."

Kento was standing behind Sage and happened to get a look inside the mug, expecting something completely different from what he saw. "Sage, since WHEN do you drink /coffee?"

"I always drink coffee. Now leave me be."

The other four boys exchanged looks. Something was not right with Sage. On the other hand, his voice still sounded the same, so he probably just must have hit his head. Going with that theory, Ryo and Kento took seats while Cye went about at least making tea for them. After a while of ignoring his tablemates, Sage put down his paper and stood up, intending to refill his mug. As he turned to step away from the table, he happened to look down and spotted something quite interesting on Rowen.

"Why do you have that?"

Rowen looked up at the oddly irritated tone that was directed at him. "What?"

"You know what. Now why do you have it?"

"…You mean the necklace? Sage, you /already/ know why I have it."

Sage's eyes narrowed and he reached out as if to either snatch the necklace off or to hit him. Rowen didn't know which it was going to be and quickly scrambled out of his chair. He brought his hands up in an effort to placate his friend. It didn't work and Sage lunged for him, growling a bit. At this point the other three tried to subdue the blond, though they just got hit or kicked for their troubles. Kento managed to grab Sage from behind and for a brief moment, the struggling stopped. Then, Sage used as much force as possible to stomp on Kento's foot, making the other boy cry out and let him go. The blond took this opportunity to shove Kento over and then go after Rowen, who had seen him coming and bolted out of the room.

"Cye, stay with Kento. I'm going to see if I can help Rowen."

"Okay, Ryo."

Ryo ran out stopped in the middle of the living room, listening for any sounds of a struggle or at least people running. He didn't hear anything for a few moments and then someone pounding down the stairs. Sprinting towards the staircase, Ryo nearly ran into Rowen as the other boy came pelting across the room. Following him was Sage, who had now acquired a rather jagged edged double bladed ax. -Aw, hell.- Ryo quickly moved to the side and stuck out his foot. As he hoped, Sage tripped over it and dropped the ax. Before Sage could get up, Ryo hurried over to pick the ax up. He stood in front of Sage, blocking his way back into the kitchen and holding the ax defensively.

"Get. Out. Of. My. Way."

Ryo stood his ground. "I don't want to hurt you Sage. Just back off and leave Rowen alone, alright?"

Sage just snarled and advanced. "I told you to /move/."

"No." Just then, Ryo felt something try to yank the ax out of his hands. He gripped it tighter in a vain attempt to keep it out of Sage's grasp. One rather powerful tug, however, broke his grip and the ax flew out of his hands and into Sage's grip. "Damn it!"

In a flash, Sage was close enough to strike him upside the head with the ax handle. He watched as Ryo slumped to the ground and then grinned. "You deserved that for making things difficult." Deciding to postpone going after that blue haired thief (after all, where was he going to go? Outside?), he slung Ryo over his shoulder and headed back towards the stairs.


	7. Chapter 7

Wow, it's about time I got another chapter of this out. ; My apologies for the wait. Hopefully, I won't have another big gap in between this chapter and the next.

Back in the kitchen, Rowen was in a chair and his upper body draped over the table. He had only sat down once it was apparent that Sage was not going to burst thought the kitchen door and smash that ax into his skull. Cye had poured him a cup of tea and, once his breathing had returned to a calmer state, Rowen picked up the cup and took a long sip. 

"Thanks, Cye."

"You're welcome."

"Are you sure you're alright, Ro?" Kento gave his blue haired friend a worried look.

"I'll be fine as long as Sage doesn't kill me."

"Man, I STILL can't believe he'd kill you over something so stupid."

"I wish," Cye began, "I knew what was going through his mind right now."

"I think we all do, Cye." Rowen took another sip of tea. "What /I/ hope is that Ryo was able to talk some sense into that stupid blond head of his."

Kento frowned. "Speaking of Ryo…Shouldn't he an' Sage be back by now?"

The other two boys looked at each other and then at Kento. A moment later, they all scrambled out of their seats and booked it into the living room. When they got there, there was no indication that either Ryo or Sage had been there at all. It wasn't long, however, before Cye noticed some movement up on the second floor landing. Gesturing for the others to follow him, he quietly made his way to and up the stairs.

At the top, the small group paused and looked around themselves. The movement Cye had seen was gone and the hall was dark and silent. It seemed just a little TOO dark. Kento frowned at their shadowy surroundings, wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him. Perhaps it /was/ just his imagination, but he could have sworn that the hall was a light lighter earlier. It almost seemed as if someone had turned out the lights before they got to the top of the stairs. Though, for what purpose, he didn't know.

After their eyes had accustomed to the darkness, Rowen spotted something sitting ominously near the end of the hallway on their left. He nudged his buddies and pointed to it. Cye nodded and slowly walked towards it; the others following. Once he was right in front of it, he took a deep breath and moved to open the lid, expecting something to jump out at him. He was completely shocked to see that, inside, lay Ryo, his black hair seemingly swallowed up by the black velvet lining of the coffin he was in. Cye turned to Rowen and Kento, eyes wide and face pale, and shakily pointed to the still figure of their friend.

"N-no way!"

Kento echoed Rowen's exclamation and shook Ryo's unmoving body hoping that it wasn't really what it looked like. Ryo still didn't move and Kento stepped back. "He…He can't be dead, can he? I mean, Sage wouldn't kill his /friend/, right?"

"I dunno, Ken." Rowen had a hand up to his chin, looking at the body. "Personally, I know he wouldn't. But Sage hasn't been acting right since we found him in the kitchen earlier."

"Yeah, but even if Sage is being creepy weird, I still don't think that he'd ever actually KILL any of us."

As they were talking, Cye was getting up close and personal with Ryo's body. Something had been bothering him after he had forced himself to take another look at it. This time, it registered that Ryo had been stabbed in the chest. However, the more he looked at it, the more it seemed like the dagger was moving. He looked back at the others. "Hey, guys?"

"Yeah, Cye?"

"Come look at this and tell me if you see anything strange."

Rowen and Kento moved forward and peered at where Cye was pointing. To their surprise and immediate relief, Ryo appeared to be breathing normally.

Kento frowned. "It's kinda creepy to see him breathing like that when he's been stabbed."

"Hold on…" Rowen started, leaning forward and poking the hilt of the dagger with a finger. It wobbled and fell over, landing with a sound as if it had fallen on top of paper. "I thought so."

"What do you mean you 'thought so'? You knew it was fake all along?"

"No, but before I touched it, I thought I saw it wobble; like it wasn't really in him at all."

Cye focused on where the hilt fell and found out why it had made that sound. "There's some paper, here." he said, picking it up.

"Why would someone put a piece of paper in with a seemingly dead body?"

"Because, Kento," Rowen said, taking the paper from Cye, and unfolding it. "It's a note."

"What's it say, Ro?" Cye asked.

"Let's see…" When his eyes adjusted to seeing curvy writing in the dark, he read, "'This will be YOU'--it looks like that word's underlined and in all caps-- 'if you don't give me that necklace back.'"

"Lovely." Kento made a face at the note. "What is so important about this necklace, anyway?"

"I don't know." Rowen refolded the note and absently put it in his pocket. "But I think we should at least get Ryo out of that coffin."

Kento agreed and, with a little help, hauled Ryo out; slinging the boy over his shoulder for easier transportation.

"I think," Cye said, "we should get out of the dark. It's starting to feel oppressing."

They all agreed that the best place to retreat to was the kitchen. As they headed back down the stairs, they were unaware that they were being watched.

----

-Damn.- he thought. -Why couldn't he have just left that necklace?- The owner of the thoughts made a rather sour face and glared at Rowen's receding form. He could have /sworn/ seeing his idiot friend like that would have gotten that thief to give back what belonged to him.

Now that his brilliant scare tactic didn't work, Sage had to come up with another way to get that necklace back. After a moment of thought, he decided that perhaps a new "identity" was in order. After all, those boys were wary of him now and would take measures to keep him away from the thief. A smile crept across his face as he thought of the perfect substitute: that auburn haired boy who had first looked inside the coffin. However, he had to be more subtle, this time. It simply wouldn't do to switch bodies only to end up with the same result.

First things first, he had to ditch this body somewhere. But where? Sage thought of all the places he could dump the body, though only one seemed to keep popping into his mind. Nodding once with the decision, he walked out from his hiding place and past the coffin to stop in front of a pull string hanging from the ceiling. He tugged on it, bringing down a set of wooden stairs. Up he went, as quiet as could be, into the room above, and disappeared. A moment later, the stairs slowly placed themselves back into the ceiling.

----

His head was throbbing, so much that it made opening his eyes a difficult task. When the throbbing slowed down to a more tolerable rate, Ryo opened his eyes and allowed them to focus. The first thing he noticed was that he was laying on his back. The next thing he noticed was Rowen, Kento and Cye standing over him, looking worried. He sat up slowly, rubbing his head.

"What…What happened?"

"We found you in a coffin."

"…What?"

"Cye's right." Rowen reached into his pocket, took out the note and handed it to him. "We also found this with you, along with the hilt of a dagger, I think."

Ryo read the note over and frowned. "This isn't any of our handwriting."

"No… The only people I would think it could belong to, would be the twins."

"But, wait," Kento said, "Why would they do that when they've said they'd help us out?"

"Good question." Cye sighed and scratched a spot on his shoulder. "But, who else would it have done such a dirty thing?"

A light went on in Ryo's head. "The one who hit me was Sage. He's the only one who's been acting crazy lately."

"But that still doesn't make sense. WHY would he put you in a coffin and make like you were actually dead?"

"How should I know, Ken? That's just the last thing I remember."

"Calm down, you guys. We're not going to get this thing solved if we keep arguing with ourselves." Rowen gave his friends a stern look. "Right, Cye? …Cye?"

The auburn haired boy was nowhere to be seen. They hadn't noticed him leave and none of them recalled hearing him say he was going anywhere. Fearing that something similar would happen to Cye, the three boys all went out to search for him.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: OMG, guys, I am _so_ sorry I took so long to get this chapter out. D I got stuck and only _last night_ was able to get past it. I'll try getting out the next chapter sooner, I swear.**

Up in their room, Shi and Hito were relaxing by the large bay window. They had been out near the back of the house, in a long forgotten room, sparring. When they had returned, their blond guest was laying, unceremoniously and face down, on the floor in the middle of the room. Shi had immediately picked the boy up and placed him on the nearest bed. Hito had tried lightly smacking his cheeks to try to revive him, but he didn't get a response. After trying to shake him and getting the same results, Shi suggested just waiting for the guy to wake up on his own. Hito was a bit disappointed about having to wait who knew how long, but eventually agreed.

About an hour later, a soft groan tugged the twins' attention away from their current activity to the bed. The blond boy sat up slowly, a hand coming up to rub at his forehead. It was apparent to them that he hadn't expected whatever it was that happened to him. Hito walked up to the boy's right and knelt down slightly.

"Hey. You feeling a bit better now?"

Sage blinked at him, then nodded. "Yes, I think so. What happened, anyway?"

"We were hoping you could answer that, actually." Shi approached the other side of him and presented the blond with a teacup. "Here, have some tea."

Sage took the cup and sipped. "Thank you." He took a few more sips, then said, "I don't recognize this room. Which floor am I on?"

"Third."

"… You mean the attic?"

"No, that's another floor up."

"Then where am I?"

"In our room."

That should have been obvious, but Sage decided to just chalk it up to the surprise of finding himself in a very unfamiliar room, and a headache. While finishing the rest of his tea, he casually looked around and noted that there didn't seem to be more than one door in the room. This struck him as odd, until he caught sight of the two large wardrobes sitting near the beds.

After he had taken in the room, he asked, "By the way, how did I get here?"

"We were hoping you could answer that for us."

Sage looked between the two brothers a moment, vaguely wondering which one it was who had spoken, as he thought about how he may have ended up in a room on a floor he had no knowledge. Another thoughtful moment later, he shook his head.

"Well," One of the twins started, "What's the last thing you remember? Perhaps that will help us figure out what happened."

"We were all in the library and I though I saw some movement out in the hall. When I went out to investigate, I saw a man step out of a room and stare at me."

"Did he do anythin'?

"Yes, actually. He came towards me and yanked me into his chest." He frowned slightly. "The last thing I remember was feeling like I was engulfed in ice. Then the next thing I know, I wake up in here."

Hito glanced at Shi, who nodded, before addressing the blond. "I believe," he said dryly. "that you have been possessed."

Sage's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I've been _what_?"

"Possessed."

"How can you be so sure that's what happened?"

"From the way you described it."

"Besides," Shi added, "If he didn't try to hurt you, there's really no other point to his actions than possession."

"Oh, I see." After a slight pause, he asked, "Will one or both of you direct me back to the second floor staircase, please? I don't want the others to worry about me."

"Sure!" Hito said, turning and gesturing toward the door.

Sage nodded and headed in that direction, while Shi went to put away the teacups.

--

Downstairs, in the kitchen, Kento, Ryo, and Rowen were gathered at the table after searching for Cye.

"Man," Kento started, "We've looked everywhere we possibly could and _still_ no Cye!"

"Hopefully he hasn't run into Sage."

Rowen shuddered slightly at the mention of their blond friend. Normally, running into Sage wasn't a bad thing. But he seemed to have lost it and Rowen really didn't want to think about what could be happening to Cye right now. He shook his head to get his focus back to the conversation at hand.

"And that's another thing," Kento was saying, "We haven't seen Sage since he last chased Rowen. You'd think he'd have made another move by now."

"Not necessarily." Ryo said. "Maybe he's waiting for us to do something stupid so he can make his move."

"Well…that _does_ seem like something Sage would do. Except, he seems to have gone crazy."

"Of course he has. It's the only explanation for his behavior."

"Whose behavior, Rowen?"

Ryo, Rowen and Kento turned their heads, quickly, towards the door, startled by the sudden new voice. Rowen, after registering just who the voice belonged to, scrambled out of his seat, knocking the chair over in the process. He positioned himself in a spot which would give him access to a quick exit if need be.

"Hi, Sage." Ryo said, trying to sound nonchalant enough to hide his wariness.

Sage, however, wasn't paying attention to Ryo. He was currently frowning slightly at Rowen, trying to figure out why the archer had reacted to him like that.

"Sage. Yoohoo, Earth to Sage. Sage!"

Sage snapped out of it. "What is it, Kento? And stop waving your hand in my face."

"Where've ya been, dude? We haven't seen you for a while."

"Did you happen to run into Cye?" Ryo asked when Sage didn't answer Kento.

"No, I haven't." He frowned. "I've only just returned from the third floor."

"Damn. Well he's gotta be around here somewhere."

"Rowen, why are you inching towards the door?"

Rowen stopped in his tracks and gave Sage a 'deer caught in the headlights' look. "Uh… Just thought I'd, y'know, take a walk." He laughed nervously.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"No, no I guess not." His shoulders slumped a little, defeated.

"I didn't think so." Sage crossed his arms and gazed sternly at Rowen. "Now then, would you _please_ tell me why you're being so jumpy around me?" The other three just stared at him, making him blink in confusion. "What?"

Kento glanced quickly at Ryo and Rowen before answering. "You're trying to kill him."

"Oh." Blink. "Wait, _what_? Why would I do that? I don't have a reason to."

"You don't remember?" Rowen said, disbelief in his voice.

"Rowen, if I remembered, I wouldn't have asked."

"To be fair, Sage," Ryo said, "You _could_ be bluffing about it just to lull us into a false sense of security."

He had a point and Sage couldn't argue with it. Especially since he had no recollection of what he had done between meeting up with that man and waking up in the twins' room. His best course of action at this point in time was to tell them what the twins had told him. First things first, however. "Rowen, I'm sorry. I would never, of my own volition, try and hurt you like that."

"… Except that, you _did_. How do you get off saying that you didn't?"

Sage sighed, shaking his head to move his hair out of his eye. "Well, according to the twins, I had been possessed."

Rowen, Ryo and Kento all exchanged looks, neither of them all _that_ sure they believe him. However, this was Sage, and they all knew that he had never pulled the 'I've been possessed' thing on them before, nor had he dropped a few screws as he apparently had today. Ryo gave his friend a long level look, thinking back to right before and then during the attacks on Rowen and himself. _He was perfectly normal and calm, like now. But, if I remember right…_

"I think…" Ryo started, making his friends turn their attention to him. "Sage is telling the truth."

"But Ryo, he _attacked us_."

"Wait, I supposedly attacked more than one person?" He sounded faintly horrified.

"Yeah, Ryo. Made it seem like you had killed him."

Sage ran a hand through his bangs in a motion that, for him, could have been described as 'distraught'. "Ryo, I'm so sorry. I--"

"It's okay, Sage." He smiled. "I don't blame you for acting like a nut with an ax." One of Sage's eyebrows shot up. "Yeah, you threatened me with an ax, then only whupped me with the handle." He shrugged. "I'm perfectly fine."

"So, why is it you believe him, Ryo?" Kento finally spoke up.

"Think about it. Before Sage left the library, he was acting like he is now, but during the attacks, even though his voice was the same, he didn't _sound_ the same." He was met with one or two blank stares. "Look, he has a certain way of talking, right?"

_That's true._ Rowen thought, bringing up a hand to rest on his chin. "Now that you mention it… his voice _was_ a lot more gruff."

"Right."

"And," Kento, added, "He was really possessive over that necklace you found."

Rowen sighed. "Alright, I believe and forgive you, Sage. It's like you said. You wouldn't do that to me on your own free will."

Sage smiled and held out a hand. "Still friends?"

"Still friends." He smiled back and clasped the blond's hand.

"Aww, warm and fuzzy feelings" Kento said, grinning, and hugging the two tightly.

"Kento…" Ryo shook his head, amused at his friends actions. "Come on, we still have to find Cye."

Kento disengaged himself from the others rubbed his hands together. "Right, right. Let's get going!"

"Hold on, Kento." Sage, the voice of reason, said. "We need to, at least, have an idea of where to look."

"We've looked _everywhere_, already, though, Sage."

Rowen nodded. "We did. It was after we had found Ryo in casket that," He did air quotes for the next word. "You put him in. The guys and I were talking and then suddenly Cye was just _gone_."

Sage frowned. "Odd…"

"Oh crap!" They all turned to Kento, who had his mouth open, horrified. "What if now it's _Cye_ who's possessed?"

The other three took a moment to process that. Cye would usually tell them if he were going somewhere, and that, coupled with the days events and what had happened to Sage, made the possibility of Cye being possessed highly likely. It didn't take much longer after that revelation for the four of them to scramble out of the kitchen and off to do a major search of the house.

--

In a hidden room, an auburn haired teen watched with amusement as the trapped rats ran about his house. _They're probably looking for me._ He grinned, evilly. _And once they find me… I _will _get that necklace back. One way or another it _will_ be mine again. _But first, he had to come up with a plan that would not make them suspect anything other than innocence.He had watched this group closely and the body he was borrowing at the moment seemed to be regarded as the sweet one. Therefore, his previous attempts with the first body could not be used, as they would figure it out too quickly. Turning away from his perch, the teen headed for the hidden room's entrance, formulating a plan as he went to let his "friends" find him.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **Wow, it took me forever to work on this chapter. ^_^;; Sorry, guys~! Two years of block for a chapter written in about two days. _-_ I'm back on track with the story, though, so hopefully ch 10 won't take me _too_ long to bang out. I'm also hoping to finish the fic by at least January. =X We'll see how well that goes.

Argh, since I cannot use my usual breaks, I'm going to be using zeros. =P Stupid, ugly zeros.

0000

With Cye missing and the thing that possessed Sage still on the loose, it was decided that they would split into pairs for better safety as they searched for their friend. Rowen and Sage took the first floor, while Ryo and Kento took the second. If one team found something, they would alert the other team by shouting. If that didn't work, they agreed that the spotting team should fetch the other; both members going for safety.

On the first floor, Rowen suggested starting back where he guessed the pantry was and working their way past the staircase. As it was as good a plan as any, Sage agreed and the two headed into the kitchen. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary in the kitchen, except that the water in the sink seemed to be running. Sage walked over to it to turn it off, but as he reached out for the knobs, there was no indication that it had been running at all. He frowned a little and raised his friend a 'what the hell' eyebrow.

Rowen just shrugged. "Probably one of the twins."

"I suppose so." He gave the sink, which was still waterless, another glance before starting again for the pantry. "I don't think they'd continue that now, though, considering."

"Oh...You have a point, there." The archer looked back towards the sink a moment, then just shook his head. "Maybe it was your imagination, then."

"Except that you heard the water running, too, right?"

"Oh, yeah. Weird."

It didn't take the pair long to find the pantry; it was written on the door, even. Rowen vaguely wondered why Cye had had so much trouble earlier... until they actually opened the door and found what looked like a janitor's closet. Cleaning supplies, a broom, a box labeled as 'CANDLES', a bucket or two, and a step ladder greeted them. Sage gave a small huff at the improperly labeled door.

"That wasn't very nice, was it?"

"Eh, maybe they ran outta room and had to move the food to a bigger spot."

"You are probably right, Ro. Let's keep looking."

After a few more minutes that nearly felt like longer, they managed to find the actual pantry. It was, indeed, a lot larger than the closet and held a lot of jars and cans whose labels have long since fallen off. Looking around, it wasn't hard to see why Cye had told them the food was spoiled. Rowen held up a jar and peered at the contents.

It peered back.

The blue haired archer let out a small yelp and nearly dropped the jar. Sage turned around to see what was up.

"Are you alright?"

"I-i-i-it _looked_ at me!"

Sage raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure that's what happened? It was probably a trick of the light."

"I _swear_ that's what happened." He gave the jar another, albeit at arm's length, look and quickly set it back.

The blond couldn't really argue more than that, as he remembered that he _swore_ the faucet was running in the kitchen. Shaking the thought out of his head, he continued to look around the pantry. There didn't seem to be any other doors or hatches anywhere that someone could hide in and the shelving was flat against the walls. Since there wasn't anything further to note, the pair made their way back to the kitchen.

0000

The first room they checked out after ascending the stairs was a bedroom on the left. Ryo recognized it as the one he woke up in. It appeared to be a child's room, with two twin sized beds pushed up length wise against the two long walls. Both were made with faded pink bedding that had faint flower and unicorn designs on it. Ryo noted that both beds looked like they were never slept in and figured that one of the twins had made it sometime after they were all done with breakfast. The closet was to the right of the door, so he walked in to see if there was anyone hiding in it. There wasn't. In fact, there wasn't really anything of interest in this room at all. Deciding that no one could sufficiently hide in here, he walked out to see what Kento was up to.

The ashy haired teen happened to be one room down, peering under a chest of drawers. Ryo blinked and crouched down next to him.

"What are you doing?"

Kento jumped, nearly hitting his head on the brass handle of the bottom drawer. "Don't _do_ that, man! I nearly had a heart attack."

"Sorry. So what are you doing?"

The teen sat up on his knees and gave Ryo a look. "I thought I saw something under there. Like eyes." He shrugged and stood up. "Something shiny, at least."

Ryo shuddered faintly, remembering the butler. "Creepy. Hopefully it was nothing."

"Yeah, really." Kento gave one last look at the bottom of the dresser, then turned away from it. "Anyway, no one's hiding in here. Let's try a different room."

"Okay."

The two left the room and Kento shut the door behind them. The next two rooms they tried were locked, but the third one wasn't. Entering this room, they saw that it was the nursery; the cribs lining the back wall helped that conclusion. There was a closet opposite and to the left, so Kento went to see if there was anyone hiding in there. Ryo decided to check the cribs, 'just in case'. __You never know what could be in there in _this_ house._ _He chose the farthest one on the left to start with and peered over the top of the lowerable railing. Nothing but rotting mattress and what appeared to be the remains of a blanket. The next one was just as promising. The one after that had a broken railing, making it easier to see what was inside. The contents were the same as the others, except this one had a shiny brass door handle in the middle of it. This item seemed familiar in a way and thinking back on it, he remembered Sage mentioning it when they had regrouped after their first inspection of the house. Curious to see if it was just a one time prank, Ryo picked up the handle and stared at its shiny surface. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He set the handle back down, mildly disappointed that he didn't see anything.

Since that crib held nothing, he wasn't really holding out hope for the last one, but took a full look inside, anyway. The teen instantly recoiled, letting out a disgusted cry. Kento immediately rushed over to see what the problem was.

"What? What happened?"

"Th-there's a... there's a..." Ryo took a moment to swallow and try to calm his gag reflex. "There's a _rotted baby_ in there!"

"No way!" Kento moved closer to the crib and tentatively peered in. He blinked and turned to look at his friend. "Uh, Ryo...? There's nothing in there."

"...What?" Kento repeated his statement, so Ryo took a deep breath and looked back into the crib. It was, indeed, empty. He spoke softly. "B-but... I saw... it was..."

Kento patted Ryo on the shoulder, then started to lead him towards the door. "Come on, let's get out of here before anything else happens."

When they were safely back in the hall and that room's door was shut again, Ryo said, "It _was_ there."

"I believe you, Ry. Honestly, I _do_." He started walking towards the last door on that side of the floor. "You think maybe it was that one twin who was doing stuff like that to us this morning?"

Ryo thought about it, then shook his head. "Nah, I don't think it is. From what we all recounted that time in the kitchen, this is more gruesome than what he had been doing."

"Oh... That's right. His stuff was more... _mild_ compared to a rotting baby."

"Yeah." The teen shuddered at the thought of seeing that and did his best to shove the image out of his head.

0000

As his hiding place didn't overlook anything, the auburn haired teen used the room's mirror to spy on his 'friends'. The top half showed the two on the first floor, whereas the bottom half showed the other two. The four boys seemed to be finding both nothing and something at the same time. He knew for a fact that those wretched twins were not behind the pranks these boys were 'imagining' they were finding. No, he smiled a little to himself, _he_ was. After all, what good is being stuck forever in an empty house with_out_ having some fun when live people somehow end up in it? He didn't realize that this same attitude was shared by one of the boys he hated so much. That didn't matter, though. It was almost time to make his appearance.

0000

They were at the last room past the stairs, and thankfully it was unlocked. Rowen opened the door and peeked in. Inside was pitch black and nothing really stood out to him at first...until he took a step and nearly fell into a hole. Luckily, he was quick enough to grab onto the door frame and stop himself. After planting both feet firmly on the floor outside, he knelt down a little and focused his vision on the floor.

"Are you alright, Rowen?"

"Yeah. Nearly fell to my death, but I'm alright."

"Another 'trick'?"

Rowen shook his head. "No... There really _isn't_ a floor here." He gestured for Sage to take a look. "Come see for yourself."

Sage knelt beside him and reached out to pat the floor. "Oh wow. Imagine if you fell into that; you'd never be able to get back out." He paused for a second. "Unless maybe it went down into the basement and there were stairs nearby."

"I somehow doubt that's the case."

"True."

The two boys stood back up and Rowen shut the door. As it was the last room on their floor, they had to decide on what to do next. Sage suggested going back the way they came, rechecking the rooms just in case they may have missed something; skipping the floorless room, of course. Rowen agreed and the two walked over to the room before the floorless one. This room was a half bath, so there wasn't much to revisit in there. Sage did notice, however, that a hand towel had fallen onto the floor and took the time to pick it up. He folded it neatly and set it on the counter. The two then moved on to the next room, which was nothing more than a glorified storage area. There was a closet to the left of the door, so Rowen checked it out. The doors had been removed who knew when and the space was _packed_ with a jumble of clothes, sheets, towels and some long forgotten tennis equipment. As there was no room for someone to hide in there, they moved onto the next room.

0000

Upstairs, Ryo and Kento weren't having much luck locating Cye, either. But, they had three rooms to go, so hope hadn't yet run out. The first of these rooms happened to be the one Kento had woken up in that morning. The ashy haired teen shuddered faintly as he remembered that stupid sword dancing in his face. However, this wasn't the time to be thinking of that, so he pushed the thought out of his head and stepped into the room. It seemed fairly large for being one of the smaller rooms they had seen, though Ryo just supposed that was because there was hardly any furniture in it. There was a bed, dresser, vanity with a small stool; basic guest room stuff.

As Ryo went to go open the closet, Kento walked over to the window on the other side of the room. The curtain was closed, so he pulled back one of the corners a bit. It was depressing, to say the least. All white, as though someone had taped a sheet of printer paper to the window, but there was a more 3D quality to it. He didn't see any headstones, so he surmised that the graveyard must be only in the front. Belatedly, Kento noticed that there didn't seem to be any panes in the window and, remembering that it was said if one ends up outside, they'd never get back in, he didn't want to stick his finger out there to see if there was glass and risk losing that finger forever.

"There isn't anything here, Ken. Let's check the next one."

"Okay." Kento let the curtain fall back into place and headed out the door behind Ryo.

The next room looked like another guest room, though more decorated than the last. Once bright yellow wallpaper with a white stripe and rose design was now dull and peeling in a few spots from the wall. The bed in the room was still beautiful after all this time and its four posts and small canopy looked pristine. Ryo ran his finger over one of the posts and gave Kento a surprised eyebrow.

"There's no dust on here at all."

"Maybe it's one of the twins' rooms. They're still pretty active."

"Could be. Maybe the one that got us breakfast."

"Which one was that, again?"

"I have no idea. I still can't tell them apart."

Kento agreed, then went to open the wardrobe that was standing against the wall near the window. Inside were a few dresses and a scarf or two. "Looks like a little girl stayed in here." He shut the doors and turned back to Ryo. Only, Ryo wasn't in the room any more. "Ryo?"

The teen hurried into the hall and looked around, hoping that nothing had happened and _especially_ that he hadn't gone and gotten himself possessed. His fears were quickly dashed as he almost immediately spotted his friend staring down the hall towards their last room. Letting out a small sigh of relief, he walked over to Ryo and lightly slapped a hand on his shoulder.

"Dude, next time _tell me_ you're leavin' the room."

"Ah! Sorry, Kento. I thought I heard a noise and wanted to see if it was anything."

"This ain't the house to do that type of stuff alone in, Ry. Remember that."

Ryo smiled apologetically at his friend. "I won't do it again, promise."

"Good."

The sound of a door opening brought their attention to the room Ryo had been looking toward. Kento thought that he had also heard a toilet flush somewhere in the background, then remembered that that room was the bathroom he had found much earlier in the day. Nothing happened for at least a minute. Ryo started to take a step forward, wanting to see if the door they heard was indeed from that last room or not. Before he got a full step ahead, a figure emerged from the bathroom and looked at them.

Kento gasped. "Cye!"


	10. Chapter 10

Kento and Ryo stared at Cye for a moment, as if to make sure it was really him and not their imagination. Cye smiled at them and that was the cue for the other teens to rush over and hug their friend.

"Cye, buddy! Where in the world have you been?"

"What are you talking about? I was in the restroom." __So help me if these fools don't stop touching me...__

Ryo blinked at the explanation. "Really? All this time?"

Cye just smiled and nodded. "I wasn't really in there for _that_ long."

"Seems like it to me."

"That's just the house; time is different here."

Okay, Cye had a good point and Ryo couldn't really argue with it. He and Kento let go of the other teen and stepped back. As they did so, Kento thought he saw a small change in Cye's expression, as if he were relieved they stopped hugging him. This struck him as odd, since Cye didn't usually mind being hugged (and especially not if he were missing and then found). Kento didn't like where this thought was going. Not one bit. He glanced over at Ryo, wondering if he was getting the same impression as well, and tried to keep a frown from appearing on his face, lest Cye notice and suspect that he suspected something wrong.

"I'm glad that you're safe," Ryo said, smiling. "We should go find the others and share the good news."

"Alright." Cye started for the stairs, not bothering to wait for or see if his friends catch up.

Ryo frowned a little, wondering how Cye could be so confident about where the others were, despite supposedly being in the bathroom for "not that long".

Kento leaned over to him as they walked and whispered, "I don't think that's really Cye in there."

"I think you're right," he whispered back. "The Cye I know would have been apologetic for worrying us like that."

"Yeah and did you happen to notice how he seemed relieved when we stopped hugging him?"

Ryo shook his head. "No, I don't think I caught that. But if you saw it, then..."

"Then the possibility that he's possessed is pretty high."

The black haired teen didn't really want to believe that, but reality wasn't good friends with him right now. He had to admit that Cye seemed a lot colder than he should be, even though he was still nice and smiling and such. They would have to be careful to not let it slip that they believe he's possessed; no need for more attacks. Hopefully Rowen and Sage will notice quickly, as there may not be time to warn them before what or whoever the entity is attacks again.

It didn't take the trio too long to find their friends downstairs. Rowen and Sage had finished rechecking rooms and decided to just stay in the kitchen, figuring that it was usually where they met up, so they'd be easy to find that way. The two of them hadn't been finished for long before the kitchen door opened and their friends walked in.

"Cye! Thank God you're okay!" Rowen jumped up from his seat and immediately went and hugged his friend.

Cye gave the blue haired teen's arm a pat or two, then backed up a bit.

"Something wrong?"

"Ah, no, I'd just like to sit down."

"Oh, sorry." Rowen moved aside to let Cye walk to the table.

"Where'd you find him?" Sage asked.

"Bathroom." Kento sat down next to Cye. "Almost didn't believe it was him at first."

Sage smiled. "I'm glad you found him, though. We were not having any luck down here."

"Yeah," Rowen piped in. "Especially since I almost accidentally killed myself."

"What?" Kento and Ryo exclaimed in unison.

Rowen went on to recount what happened, starting back at the pantry.

While that was going on, Cye sat back and mentally rolled his eyes. __I_ wish _he had killed himself. I would have been able to retrieve what's rightfully mine.__ These kids were stupid, though. They didn't seem to notice he wasn't really their friend and that will work to his advantage. His new strategy of playing nice was definitely a good idea. Cye paused his thoughts to pretend to listen to the conversation. The black haired boy was telling his friends about what happened in the nursery. Cye couldn't help but smirk a little bit before quickly composing himself and looking 'concerned'.

As soon as Cye had walked in, Sage had a feeling that something wasn't right. Cye didn't _feel_ the same to him, like he had changed, mentally. That, coupled with how he seemed to not want Rowen to touch him, made him suspect what he didn't really want to. However, that smirk Cye had when Ryo was telling them about the rotted baby he saw sealed his opinion. Cye was definitely possessed. There was no. way. Cye would smirk at something like that. Sage's expression remained neutral as he listened to Ryo, though glancing at Cye, just in case Cye looked over at him and thought he suspected something.

When all accounts had been shared, Rowen said, "Now that we're all together again, how should we go about finding a way home?"

"We know we can't leave via the front door, and that there isn't any way out in any of the rooms... Maybe we should ask the twins."

"That's not a bad idea, Ken." Ryo sat back in his chair. "I mean, if they brought us here, there's a good chance they can take us back."

"Why don't we try finding a way, ourselves, and not bother them?"

Rowen raised an eyebrow at Cye. "Why? They said they'd help us if we needed it."

Cye shrugged. "I just think it'd be better to try first, and if we really couldn't find a way, then we could ask them." __But I'd rather let them rot in hell.__ The auburn haired teen mentally growled at the thought of those two, somehow managing to keep the angry sneer off his face.

"Hmm, that might not be a bad idea. I'm sure we can think of _something_."

"Okay," Ryo tossed his hands up. "Two against one. If Sage and Cye think we should go to the twins last, then we go to the twins last." He put his hands back on the table. "So now the question is: how should we go about finding a way back?"

The room was silent for a moment before Kento banged his hand on the table, bringing everyone out of their thoughts. "I know! We should find that room Ryo showed us before. The one that the painting was based on. Maybe there's a clue or something in there that can help us."

"Good idea!" Ryo hopped out of his seat. "I think I remember where that room was."

The other four stood up (Cye almost reluctantly) and the group headed out of the kitchen. On the way to the stairs, Cye glances longingly at the chest that holds the butler. If only he could go over there, let him out, and order him to toss these cretins out of his house. Allowing him to save the necklace first, of course. However, if he did that _now_, he'd ruin his cover and it wouldn't do for these boys to suspect him right now. Letting out a soft sigh, the possessed teen followed the others up the stairs and a little to their left.

Ryo walked over to a door and stopped in front of it. "I believe this is it. When Kento and I were searching here, this room was locked." He reached out to try the knob, anyway. Surprisingly, the door opened easily and he walked in, pushing the door all the way open. "Weird..."

"Maybe one of the twins unlocked it for us."

__Oh shut _up _about the bloody twins, already_._

"We don't even know if they're even paying attention to us, Kento." Sage flipped the hair out of his eye and followed Ryo into the room. "Anyway, we should look around as thoroughly as we can."

Even though there really wasn't much to the room, everyone agreed and chose a spot to start with. Ryo was already on his knees, examining the chair. He ran his fingers over the faded fabric, watching as they left trails in the dust. After amusing himself by drawing a smiley face on the seat, he moved on to see if the seat lifted. It didn't. He got down lower and looked up under the chair, as there may have been a note or something under a rung that could be helpful. However, that wasn't the case, so he stood up and dusted off his knees.

Sage was over in the left hand corner, staring at a grouping of paintings that were cattycorner to the chair. The subject matter was of a young girl, but she was in a depressing situation in each: standing dejectedly in the rain without an umbrella, staring solemnly at a grave, looking at a ripped apart teddy bear on the floor (stuffing was everywhere), standing in an empty room as if she were forgotten. __These are so... sad. Why would anyone want these in their room.__ He tilted his head at the teddy bear picture. __For that matter, just what was this room used for, anyway_?_ The painting didn't answer him and after a moment or two more of staring at the paintings, Sage shook his head and started to take each one off the wall to see if there were any notes or surprises on the backs.

Kento had went to the right hand corner to inspect a medium sized wooden chest. He ran his hand, slowly, over it, seeing if there were a trigger for a hidden drawer on it. The teen was hesitant to open the chest, though, as he didn't want to find another butler that would try and throw them out of the house. Eventually, however, he convinced himself that if he didn't open the chest, he may miss something that could turn out to be really useful. It was with this thought that he carefully opened the lid and peered inside. Kento nearly wet himself when a large cobra leapt out at him. After taking a moment to calm down (and realizing the thing wasn't moving), the ashy haired teen looked at it closer and discovered that it was a rubber snake. Whoever had played with it last had attached it to the underside of the lid with a string so that when the chest was opened, it'd 'attack'. It had done exactly what it was intended to do. __That nearly gave me a heart attack. Good thing it wasn't real!__

The teen easily broke the string off the lid and set the rubber snake aside. He then leaned over the chest a bit to see what else was inside. There were no other toys in there, but there did seem to be important looking papers. Kento took one out and looked at it. The writing on it was a rather loopy cursive that was hard for him to read. The gist of it, though, seemed to be about a formal affair with a guest speaker. A party flier. He put it back in and lifted the lot of papers up to see what was under them. __Nothing but blankets, damn. Oh well.__ Kento sighed and placed the papers and snake back in the chest and closed the lid. He'll have to find something else to check out.

Over at the closet, Rowen was pushing aside clothing to feel for any hidden panels. He wasn't having much luck, though, and moved a section of suit jackets back into place. He was starting to find it odd that there hadn't been any bugs or spiders anywhere, even though there was a lot of dust. Rowen figured that at least one spider should have crawled on him by now. Of course, this didn't really seem to be a normal house, so it could be possible that there wouldn't ever be spiders here. Aside from the clothes hanging up, there was nothing else in the closet to inspect; not even a shelf, so he turned around to see if there was anything else for him to do. In his scan of the room, he caught sight of Cye standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame. Rowen frowned a little, noticing that Cye wasn't even looking _into_ the room. He headed over to him.

"Hey, Cye. How come y'not helping us in here?"

"Hm?" Cye glanced over at him and gave him a one shoulder shrug. "Just thinking. Plus there really isn't any need for me to be in there as well."

"I...see." He turned to look back at what the others were doing.

"By the way, could I talk to you out in the hall?"

Rowen looked back at Cye and blinked. "You... can't talk to me right here?"

"I'd rather it be in the hall. That way we won't disturb the others." He smiled at him. "Please?"

__This probably isn't a good idea, but... But if I don't Cye might start thinking we know he's not really Cye.__ He sighed a little to himself. __Guess I'd better.__ "Sure." He stepped out into the hall, where Cye had him walked a few paces past the door. Rowen found that a bit odd, but didn't say anything, as he was curious about what Cye wanted to say to him. "What is it you want to say to me?"

Cye smiled more and used the sweetest voice he could. "May I please see the necklace? I think there might be a clue somewhere on it that could help us." He held out his hand expectantly.

Rowen blinked a few times. _This_ is what he couldn't say in hearing distance of the others? He also noticed how forced that sweet voice sounded, as well. It was like Cye wanted to be demanding but making himself be nice as if it was something he hated to do. Rowen knew better than to just blindly hand over the necklace after observations like that. Instead, he asked, "What makes you think there's a clue on it?"

"Because that man keeps trying to get it back. Obviously there must be something on or in it that he doesn't want us to see." The hand is still waiting for the necklace to be dropped in it and he moves it a little as if to remind Rowen he still hadn't given the item to him.

"I dunno about that..."

"_Please_?"

Cye's voice was starting to sound strained or annoyed and Rowen half believed that if his 'friend' had to ask him again, he'd probably reach out and try to snatch the necklace off his neck. But despite that, Rowen just couldn't trust this version of Cye right now and opened his mouth to politely decline.

He was cut off by a sudden outcry.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: **Not one of my better, or longer, chapters, but it didn't turn out too bad. =D AND I got it done sooner than I expected to, so there's a plus right there~ Hopefully the next chapter will be a little better than this.

0000

When Rowen got into the room, he saw the others near the window. They were consoling Kento, who had a hand over his heart.

"What happened?"

Ryo gave Rowen a mildly sheepish look. "I accidentally kicked a ball with my foot and it spooked him."

"I caught it out the corner of my eye; it looked like a quickly approaching spider!"

"I said I was sorry."

Kento shook his head, finally moving the hand off his chest to run it through his hair. "I know, don't worry about it. Just surprised me, is all."

"So, Rowen, what did Cye want to talk about?"

"Oh, that." He shrugged at Sage. "Asked me to hand over the necklace, as there might be a clue with it."

Sage raised an eyebrow. "Did he give a reason as to why he thought that?"

"Yeah, because the man keeps trying to get it back, so there's supposedly obviously something about it he doesn't want us to find."

"Wait, wait, the thing that's been after it is a _man_?" Kento gave Rowen a curious look. "How do you know that?"

"I think," Sage answered. "It might be because I saw a man right before I blacked out earlier."

"Oh."

"Is Cye still out in the hall, Ro?"

"Ah! Thanks, Ryo, I almost forgot. Be right back." Rowen turned and quickly went back out to the hallway. "Sorry, Cye! It was a false alarm."

There was no answer.

Rowen looked up and down the hall, then cursed loudly.

Ryo, Sage, and Kento exchanged looks before hurrying out to the hall. When they got there, all they saw was Rowen in the middle of the hall looking cross.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me." Kento smacked himself in the face with his palm. "Now we gotta find him all over again!"

0000

Back in their bedroom, Hito was sitting on the table talking to Shi as the other handed him a teacup. "I don't really get why he's _that_ obsessed with that stupid locket," he was saying. "It's not like it contains really embarrassing poetry or anything."

Shi shrugged, sipping from his own cup. "I'm sure it's just because it was something he gave her and with how he feels about her, no one else should ever touch her items. Which makes sense, of course, but this whole attacking business is way out of line."

"And it's not really going any better for them, either."

"He up to no good, again?"

"Looks like he's possessed another one, from what I've seen." Hito shook his head. "They'd probably be better off just giving him what he wants."

"I don't think it's that easy." He took another sip of tea before continuing. "Besides, even if they _do_ give it back, there's no guarantee that he'll leave them alone. They're also still stuck here."

"Which reminds me, we _did_ say we were here to help. How come they haven't asked us anything yet?"

"I don't know; perhaps they want to figure things out for themselves, first."

"...Okay, I'll give you that." He set his cup aside and leaned back on his hands. "I still feel like we could be doing _something_, though. I mean, we know how he is!"

"Mm."

The two boys were silent for a while before Shi moved to put away the now empty cups. When he returned, Hito hopped off the table and slung an arm around his brother.

"I have an idea~"

"Oh? What is it?"

"We should ask Reina for help! If anything, maybe she can convince him to at least leave them alone."

"Ooh~ That is a good idea, Hito. And since he's out doing who knows what, we should have clear access to her."

"Right."

With that, the brothers disappeared from the room and reappeared in the small room where the portraits of Reina and the man were. It had been a long time since they had seen Reina, even her picture. The man had made sure of that a long time ago. As such, they took a moment to stare at her portrait, admiring how pretty she was. A voice broke them out of their thoughts a few minutes later.

"You're here!"

Hito jumped, startled by the sudden sound, but quickly regained his composure. He grinned at the painting of the woman. "Course we're here~"

Shi politely elbowed him in the arm, and smiled. "It's been a while, Miss Reina. I hope he hasn't done anything bad to you."

"He hasn't, but I don't know if he knows I'm actually here or not. I'm too afraid to really make myself known."

"Understandable."

"But really, you're here." The portrait smiled, seemingly tearing up. "I thought you two left the house."

"Pfft, naaah. That bastard locked us up in a hidden room on the third floor."

"Oh my... He told me you left." She sighed. "At least I didn't fully believe him."

"Speaking of him, though," Shi said, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear. "He's on the loose and has possessed one of the guests Hito brought in."

"Oh, yeah. He's being a right pain in the ass about your locket, too."

"He doesn't have it, does he? I made sure it went to that nice blue haired boy."

"The kid still has it and smartly isn't giving it up."

"We do, however, need your help to stop him. He needs to go away forever."

Reina thought it over, and sighed again. "I guess it can't be helped."

The portrait gave off a soft, yellow glow as slowly a figure emerged from it to stand in front of the boys. The woman wasn't dressed as she was in the painting, instead she was wearing a simple white sundress that had little daisies on it. Her hair was still down, though, with a yellow ribbon tied around her head. Shi and Hito led her out of the room to start making plans.

0000

__I cannot _believe _I didn't just take the damn thing! _Again_! What the hell is wrong with me?__ The teen punched the wall of the small bedroom he was hiding in, putting a hole in it with his fist. As soon as that boy was distracted by the sound, but before he ran off, he should have just punched that brat and yanked the necklace off him. Slowly, he pulled his hand free of the wall, suddenly a lot calmer. That had given him an idea. If demanding it back wasn't working, and asking for it nicely wasn't working, he would just have to physically take it back. However, the kid would have to be alone, or otherwise distracted before he tried that. After all, it would appear that he needed all the help he could get. __It will be getting dark soon... Those boys must be exhausted from all the running around and snooping they've been doing.__ He smiled slowly to himself. __Therefore, when they are all asleep tonight, _that's_ when I'll reclaim what's mine.__ Now all he had to do is lie low until then.

0000

It was sometime later when the four of them slumped around the kitchen table. They had spend a good amount of time trying to relocate Cye, but their efforts weren't successful. Empty rooms, doors that were thought to be open earlier were now seemingly locked, and it was just discouraging. Ryo had noticed on their way back to the kitchen that what light was coming in through the windows was disappearing. Now, he lifted his head off the table and sat up straight.

"It's getting late. I think we spent the whole day _looking_ for stuff."

"Except for that small time we had reading in the library."

"Yeah, but you still looked for stuff there, too."

Rowen waved a hand dismissively. "That's besides the point."

"Anyway," Ryo continued. "My point is that we've been busy all day and we should really think about sleeping."

"Which would be _fine_, except that there's a crazy guy running around in our friend's body. Ryo, you can't really think we'll just fall asleep no problem."

"Kento has a point, Ryo." The blond covered a yawn with his hand. "However, I concede that we should at least _try_ to get some sleep. It wouldn't do to be dropping like flies while trying to avoid that man."

"Alright, then, Sage. What do you propose we do?"

Sage thought for a second. "We find a decent sized room and bunk together. If we're all separated, there's no telling what could happen, so it's best if we stuck together."

"Good idea."

Just then, a stomach growled and three pairs of eyes looked at Rowen. He just shrugged and rubbed the back of his head.

"I'm hungry, too," Ryo admitted. "But with everything that's going on, I don't really feeling like eating right now." The others agreed, and Ryo stood up. "Let's go scout out a room now and try to get comfortable."

Rowen, Kento and Sage followed his lead and also stood up. Then, the group made their way to a guest bedroom Rowen and Sage found downstairs, on their initial search for Cye. It wasn't as big as they probably would have liked, and at least three people would be on the floor, but it was better than going upstairs and finding Cye sooner than they were ready for. Sleeping areas were claimed rather quickly: Kento opted for a plush looking chair by the right corner of the room; Ryo propped himself up against the side of Kento's chair; Sage placed the bed's comforter on the floor and laid down on it; and Rowen was giving the bed.

The four of them did their best to try and fall asleep, but thoughts of an angry possessed Cye wouldn't leave them alone, and made the task much harder than it should be.


	12. Chapter 12

Before they had totally hunkered down to try to get some sleep, they discussed what they should do when Cye inevitably came for them.

"I think," Sage said, from his spot on the floor, "That we should try to be as alert as possible tonight."

"That's probably a very good idea." Ryo agreed. "But we should also try to get some decent sleep. We'll definitely need it."

"I don't think _any _of us are going to be sleeping too much, Ryo." Kento said softly. He was laying sideways on the chair, his head by Ryo's, with his eyes closed.

Rowen, who had been quiet until now, finally spoke up. "I think we should pretend to be asleep. That way, when Cye does show up, we'll have a good advantage."

"Good idea, Ro!" Ryo said.

The others agreed and soon the four of them were settling in for what was likely to be an interesting night.

It was almost like torture, laying there trying to sleep. The four of them kept waking out of a light slumber at nearly every little sound. Cye was still out there, probably still possessed, and most likely waiting for them to let their guard down. The night was ticking by slowly, and for a while, no one heard or thought they heard anything.

0000

Cye watched from upstairs bathroom mirror as the four brats walked into a room, downstairs, and found spots to sleep for the night. Pfft, like they could really hide from _him_. These boys were stupid if they truly believed that. He gave them time to think he gave up on getting the necklace back. __After all,__ he thought, _ _They're probably looking forward to sleeping.__ And, really, that just gave him the perfect opportunity to catch them unawares. The boys seemed to speak for a short time -the one on the bed slipping his hand under the pillow, though he chalked that up to the teen just adjusting it-then settled in. He waited for a little longer before heading down there, just to give them ample time to fall asleep. When enough time for him had passed, Cye silently slipped out of the bathroom and leisurely made down to the room they were staying in.

0000

Somewhere in the possible vicinity of two AM, the sound of a door scraping against carpet alerted the teens that Cye had found them. None of them dared to move any more than to further the illusion by turning over. If any of them opened their eyes ahead of time, their small advantage of surprise would be lost.

Cye crept in, taking note of how asleep the boys seemed to be. Since they had had a very busy day yesterday, he was confident that he could accomplish his task without waking any of them. The auburn haired teen knew, from watching in the mirror, that his target was the one in the bed, and so he ignored the others and made his way over there. As he stood over the bed, the boy turned from his left onto his back and sighed softly. Cye watched him a moment, just to make sure that's all he was going to do. Once satisfied, he reached down to grab the necklace from his neck.

Rowen felt the tingle of something getting closer to his skin and took that as his cue to "wake up" and quickly grab Cye's wrist. Cye let out a small, shocked gasp, then growled and tried wrenching his hand out of Rowen's grasp. Rowen gripped tighter, silently apologizing to the _real _Cye, not wanting him to get free just yet.

"Let Cye go! I don't know who you are, but let him _go_!"

Cye growled louder. "Give me the necklace, you brat!"

"Hate to burst yer bubble, bud, but I don't have it."

"Don't you lie to me. Hand it over, _now_!" Cye yanked his hand again and this time was successful in getting it away from Rowen. After quickly rubbing his wrist, he moved to take the necklace again.

Rowen practically dove off the bed toward Sage. Sage was already up and helped him over to the middle of the room, keeping himself between him and Cye as much as possible.

Sage repeated what Rowen had said earlier. "Leave Cye's body, now! Use your own for once!"

"Silence!" Cye brought his hand forward, open palmed, quickly towards Sage, as if he were going to shove him. Instead, it was like a very hard wind knocked into him, sending him nearly flying back into Rowen and taking both boys to the floor.

"Give. It. To. Me. _Now_." With each word, Cye took a step forward, with the last word being more of a snarl than an actual word.

"I _told _you, I don't have it!"

The possessed teen finally took the time to give Rowen a once over, realizing too late that the locket was no longer around his neck. As that was where the teen had always had it, Cye assumed Rowen didn't have it anywhere on or near him at all and swore loudly. "Damn you!"

The other two had taken positions around Cye, as he was dealing with Rowen and Sage. They were lucky that Cye had been too focused on Rowen to notice them. As Cye lunged towards Rowen again, they moved forward and quickly grabbed onto his arms to hold him in place. Their intended captive thrashed around as he tried to escape, kicking at the boys' shins as hard as he could. This tactic, though it took a while, finally worked and Cye pulled free.

"Bastard!" Kento glared at him as he rubbed his shin.

"That's what you get, _brat_. Now stay out of my business." He turned back to Rowen. "Tell me where it is."

"After all _this_? Hell no!"

"_Tell me_."

Rowen shook his head. "No. Way. Not until, at the very least, you leave Cye alone. He doesn't deserve you kickin' around in his body."

"You think I am going to let a mere _child _tell me what to do? You are sadly mistaken." Cye moved to make a grab for him again, but the other teens quickly stood in front of him. "Move out of the way!"

"Shut it, you jerk. Just because you're an 'adult'," Ryo made finger quotes as he said that word. "And I use the term loosely, it doesn't mean _we _have to listen to _you_." The responding growl and lunge caused Ryo to scramble out of the way, with Rowen going the opposite direction.

Sage and Kento made another attempt to restrain Cye, only to get hit in the face as their possessed friend spun around to get away. When the two boys failed at holding him a second time, Cye took the opportunity to head towards the door.

"I WILL be back and mark my words: I _WILL _get that necklace back!" With that, the teen left, slamming the door as hard as he could after himself.

After Cye left, the four boys stood there, staring at the door, just to be sure he wasn't going to suddenly burst back in. Once they were sure he had gone for good, for now, they started to relax. Sage, Ryo, and Rowen sat down on the bed, while Kento sat on the arm of the chair. For a moment, no one spoke.

"Sage, are you alright? Whatever that was, looked like it hit you hard."

"I'm alright, Rowen." He absently rubbed at his chest again. "Besides, better it happen to me than to you, considering."

"Yeah, but still..."

"Don't worry about it."

Ryo turned to Rowen. "What about you? Sage must have knocked into you pretty good."

Rowen shrugged. "It hurt, but it's nothing that won't keep me down."

"Good." Ryo smiled, then scratched his head. "So now what do we do? We can't really keep running."

"I have an idea," Kento said. When the others had turned their attention to him, he continued. "If he won't voluntarily leave Cye's body, we'll have to make him."

Sage raised an eyebrow. "And just how do you propose we do that? Actually give him what he wants?"

Kento shook his head. "No, but it does involve that. See, we know he wants that necklace _really _bad, right? So we use it to lure him towards the front door."

"You mean try to get him to go outside?"

"Exactly!"

"But, Kento," Ryo said. "How are we going to prevent him from taking _Cye _out there if he should fall for that?"

Rowen answered before Kento could. "We hold him back, of course! Although, that's no guarantee that it will actually work." He reached under the pillow, took out the necklace, and looked at it. __All this trouble for a stupid locket. Why the hell does he want it so badly...?__

"By the way, Rowen, I've been wondering. Why are you so opposed to just giving it back?"

Rowen shrugged. "I dunno, Sage. I guess it's just that he acts like it's a power piece or something. Makes me not want to hand it over to someone who could use it for evil."

"Makes sense."

"Anyway!" Kento hopped off the chair. "We should probably switch rooms and try to sleep the rest of the night."

Ryo stood as well. "I agree. Besides, after we all fought back, he probably won't try anything else tonight."

Rowen and Sage stood and the group headed out of that room to find another decent sized one to stay in. Sage didn't even bother to put the comforter back on the bed before he left; it's not like any one was really going to complain about it and given the circumstances, it was better to leave quickly. Also, at this point, he really didn't care.

The group found another room pretty quickly and went inside. The set up was different than the last one, so they had to find different spots to sleep in. This time, Sage got the bed, while Rowen took the comforter to the floor. Kento laid down near the closet and Ryo chose to slump down in the little chair in front of the vanity. Since they believed Cye would not return that night (he would almost certainly be plotting a better strategy instead of trying what he just had, again), they found it easier to slip into actual slumber.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **The next chapter will most likely be delayed a while. I'm working off an event list/outline, and need to add more to it before continuing. Don't worry, though! I'm not planning on it taking /too/ long to complete. =D

0000

The light filtering in through the room's window was bright enough to rouse Ryo from sleep. He rubbed at his eyes, then stretched out before sitting up straight. He looked around, confused, for a moment, but quickly remembered where he was and sighed. __At least he didn't come back again.__ After standing up and stretching again, the teen moved over to Rowen and shook him awake.

"Wha..? Morning already?"

"Yeah. Go wake Sage; I'll get Kento. We need to start getting a plan of action ready."

"Okay." Rowen sat up and yawned widely. He didn't _really _want to be up yet, but he also didn't want to sleep forever and miss a chance to go home. Getting onto his knees, Rowen faced the bed and reached over to shake Sage's arm.

Sage jumped and sat up quickly. "No, don't!"

The archer blinked. "Sage...?"

"Ah?" The blond looked around and spotted Rowen. "...Oh, sorry, Rowen." Sage ran a hand through his bangs. "Bad dream."

"Don't worry about it. Come on, we gotta go plan stuff." He stood up and moved to return the comforter back on the bed.

Sage nodded and slipped off the bed. "Glad Cye decided to actually leave us alone last night."

"Same here."

Ryo woke Kento without much trouble and the four of them headed down to the kitchen. On the way, they kept a look out just in case Cye suddenly popped out to attack them. Thankfully, he didn't and the group soon settled around the table.

"So," Kento started. "I know _what _we're doing, but _how _are we going to actually do it?"

"Since we're using the locket as bait, maybe we leave it by the door so that when he goes to get it, we somehow shove him out, but keep Cye in."

Sage shook his head. "Good in theory, Ryo, but if we just leave it there, there's a high chance he'll take it and then we won't have anything to bargain with."

"Actually," Rowen piped in. "I was thinking of just standing in front of the door and waving it in his face. Then-"

"When he goes for it, we'll open the door and he goes out, right?"

"Yep. The only problem with that, is that he could still take Cye with him, and we _really _don't want that."

"We could probably help with that."

The four of them looked around at the sound of the new voice. There were only two options for who it belonged to, so the main objective was finding out where they were. They didn't have to wonder long, however, as they faded into view near the door. One of the twins raised a hand and waved at them.

"Morning, guys!" Four different levels of greeting answered him. "What's with the tiredness, hm? Didn't you get any sleep?"

"Somewhat," Rowen said. "We had a hell of a rough start."

"Oh dear, that's not good."

"Tell us about it."

"Anyway! We heard your plan and I think it's _great_! Perfect way to get rid of him."

Shi gave Hito a sideways look, slightly amused at his enthusiasm. "About your dilemma concerning your friend, I suggest at least one of you stand behind him to hold him back."

Kento raised an eyebrow. "You think that would work?"

"I'm not too sure if he'd leave your friend or not, but at this point, it's the best I can come up."

"Well, that's at least something we can do."

"What about the door? I don't think Cye'll fall for this if he sees one of us standing by the door, ready to open it."

"Right! That's where one of us comes in." He made a sweeping gesture to his brother.

"I'll open the door for you so you can concentrate on the more important task."

Rowen smiled brightly at them. "Thanks!"

Kento leaned back in his chair. "So when are we going to put this plan of ours into action?"

"As soon as we eat," Ryo said. "I'm getting hungry."

"That won't be a problem." Shi smiled and went to go get them breakfast.

0000

About an hour later, everyone was in position. Ryo and Kento hid behind the couch; Sage was crouching behind a chair, opposite the couch; an invisible Shi by the door; and Rowen stood in front of the door, facing the staircase. The blue haired teen tossed the necklace in the air a little, then caught it. He did this a few times before taking a deep breath and calling out.

"Hey, ya bastard! I've got what you want, come and get it!" When Cye didn't appear, he continued. "What, are you _chicken_? Got beat last night and now yer scared? Come on!"

Still no signs of Cye. It was a bit worrying that he hadn't shown up yet; Kento thought he would have heard him and been down here by now to kick Rowen's ass. He peeked out from behind the couch to see if maybe he could spot Cye. He couldn't, so he turned to glance at Rowen. The other teen was busy staring at the top of the stairs, swinging the necklace a bit as he did so. At that point, Kento thought he heard a slight noise in the direction of the staircase, and ducked back behind it, just in case.

"So I'm right, huh? You _are _a chicken! So much for being _threatening_! Maybe an old lady could take you right now!"

A loud growling brought his attention to the top right of the staircase. On the landing was Cye. A very quickly moving Cye. Rowen held on tight to the necklace and got into a more battle ready stance, spreading his feet a little to make it easier to run if he had to.

"How _dare _you insult me like that!"

"What are ya gonna do about it?"

Cye snarled, still coming at him. "GIVE. IT. TO. ME!"Rowen dangled the locket in front of him.

"You want the necklace? You want the necklace? You can't _handle _the necklace!"

"Give it to me! _**Now**_!"It was then that Cye lunged forward, intent on grabbing the necklace from Rowen. This move was expected by the blue haired archer, so he prepared to step out of the way. As Rowen stepped out of Cye's path, the door opened by unseen hands. As soon as the teen went for the necklace, Kento, Ryo, and Sage came out of hiding and rushed over to try and restrain Cye. They weren't quick enough, however.

When Cye became aware of just where his destination was, he flung his arms out and grabbed the door frame to stop himself from being lost forever in the graveyard. After he managed to push back into the house and regained his composure, he focused his attention on Rowen again. The little bastard was watching him warily and Cye could almost swear he was smirking at him. The possessed teen growled lowly and stalked towards him.

"Hand it over, NOW, and I won't kill you too slowly."

Rowen shrugged and waved a hand dismissively. "Nah, I don't like reward."

"If you don't, I'll kill you in the most painful way I can think of!"

"As tempting as that sounds, I can't do that."

"Why. Not?" The teen held up his hands and Cye realized too late that the necklace was no longer there. "...Where is it? Tell me!"

"It went for a walk."

"_What_?"

"It went for a walk." He emphasized this by pointing to the still open door. "You're welcome to go fetch it, though. As long as you leave without Cye, of course."

Cye let out a frustrated yell, spun on his heel, and disappeared. Only, Cye didn't disappear. Instead, his body crumpled to the floor.

With a surprised shout, the four teens rushed over to him and shook him. No response.

Shi shut the door and walked over to the group. He knelt down and held a hand over Cye's face. His hand glowed blue for a moment, then Shi sighed and moved his hand away.

"What was that about? Is he okay?"

"He's fine." Shi smiled and stood up. "He's also no longer possessed. I think he was too frustrated to keep his hold on the kid."

"That's a relief!" Kento exclaimed, grinning. "I'm still curious about your glowing hand, though."

"That's not quite important right now, Sir. Best put your friend on the couch 'til he wakes up."

Ryo picked up Cye's body and placed it on the couch, making sure the unconscious teen was as comfortable as possible. "Actually," he said, turning to Shi. "I'd like to know, too. Was it because you were de-possessing him?"

Shi sighed. __Guess I'm not getting out of this.__ "Alright, you win. I didn't do anything but use my power to see if he was still possessed or not. That's it."

"Ohh... Interesting."

"Anyway, you should stay with him for now. I'll go make some tea for when he wakes up."

"Okay." Sage watched him head for the kitchen, then turned back to Cye. "At least he's safe now."

The others agreed and gathered around their friend protectively, watching over him for as long as he was out.


	14. Chapter 14

It was around one or one and a half hours later before a soft moan brought their attention to the couch. Cye brought a hand up to rub at his temple. Ryo knelt beside the couch and rested a hand on Cye's shoulder.

"How are you feeling, Cye?"The green eyed boy blinked up at him, taking a moment to focus his eyes on who was speaking. "Ah... Yeah. Just, just a little disoriented."

"That's understandable. Your blond friend had about the same experience."

"Here," Ryo started, "Try sitting up." He slipped an arm under Cye's shoulders and gently began propping him up.

Cye slid his legs off the couch and after Ryo had him lean against the back of the couch, he asked, "So, what happened, anyway?"

"You were possessed."

"W-what?"

"Yeah, by the same bastard who possessed Sage yesterday."

Cye snorted softly. "Wonderful. I was probably a right jerk to you guys, too." At that moment, Shi walked over and handed him a teacup. "Oh, thank you." He smiled and took a sip.

"You're welcome."

"...Wait, _yesterday_?"

"Kento's right, Cye," Sage answered. "We spent a night here."

"Oh dear. We'll never get home, will we?" His shoulders drooped a little as he took another sip.

"Not... necessarily." Five pairs of eyes turned to Shi, or was it Hito? "The only thing standing in the way of leaving is the man."

"I'd like to pop him where the sun don't shine for tormentin' us like this." Kento growled.

Hito laughed at that. "Be a bit hard, seeing as he's a ghost an' all."

"But seriously," Shi continued, "He has to be out of the way."

Rowen put a hand on his chin, thoughtfully. "Short of calling an exorcist, I don't know how to go about expelling ghosts."

"Would have been better if he had flung himself outside like we were hoping."

Cye looked at Sage and blinked. "Throw himself...? Just what went _on _while I was possessed?"

"_Well_," Rowen answered, "Let me fill ya in on that."

As Rowen recounted the previous events, Ryo turned to the twins. "How are we going to get him out of the way?"

"We thought we'd ask his wife for help. He's so upset at you, however, that she probably won't be able to calm him down."

"It's worth a shot, though."

"Quite," Sage agreed with Hito. "Please go ask her."

"Alright." Shi excused them, then he and Hito turned and faded from view as they walked.

After the twins had left, Kento flopped down on the couch next to Cye, leaning his head against the back of it. "I really hope we don't have to spend another night here. The first one was taxing enough!"

"There's no telling, Ken." Ryo sat down next to Kento. "Hopefully, the man's wife can help us."

"Or at least point us in the right direction." Rowen added, sitting on the other side of Cye.

Cye finished his tea and nodded. "If all we got was a clear hint, we could probably figure it out."

They didn't have to wait much longer for the twins to return, as they emerged from the direction of the kitchen two or three minutes later. Following them was a young woman with slightly wavy, long black hair. She was wearing a white sundress with little daisies on it and the yellow ribbon tied around her head complimented it nicely. She smiled at the group as they approached.

Rowen blinked and stared at her for a moment. __Where have I seen her before...?__ Almost immediately after, he jumped up and pointed at her. "It's you!" His friends gave him a look.

"What's with _you_?" Kento asked.

"Are you nuts? It's _totally _her!" He sighed at some of the blank stares he was getting. "It's the woman from the necklace. Plus her portrait is on the wall opposite of the man's in one of the rooms upstairs."

"Oh!" Kento grinned sheepishly and shrugged a shoulder. "I forgot you showed me the picture from the locket."Rowen waved that off dismissively. "Nah, don't worry about it. A lot has happened since then."

Sage shook his bangs out of his eye and nodded at the trio. "I take it that your presence means you are willing to help us?"

"Yes, I am. I'm so sorry Frederick's been bothering you this much."

Cye smiled at her. "It's not really your fault he seems possessive, you know.""I know, but still."

"So how do we get out of here?" Ryo sat forward and propped his elbows on his knees.

"It's... actually kind of simple, but I'd rather not say outright, in case he's listening in on us." She shuddered slightly. "I'm not exactly too fond of him, any more, either."

Shi took Cye's cup, as he saw he was done with it, and excused himself to go put it away. Cye thanked him, then asked, "What are we to do, then?"

"In that book your friend found, you'll know what to do. It is towards the end. I'm sorry that at this point, that's as much information as I can give you."

Sage stood and bowed. "That is all we could ask for. Thank you."

Kento stood as well. "Would you guys like to accompany us upstairs?"

"We'd be delighted."

Kento grinned and soon the group was headed up the stairs. Rowen had gotten disoriented for a moment, forgetting where the library was, but was pointed in the right direction by the woman. Once at the library (and after the group filed in), he set about relocating that book. It wasn't easy, however. It was almost as if someone had rearranged all the books to delay them further.

Ryo sighed. "This is going to take forever." He picked a shelf and started looking through the titles. "Ro, do you remember what it was called?"

"Not a clue, sorry. If I had known it was going to be important, I probably would have written it down or something." A few moments later, he caught a sort of light flickering out the corner of his eye and turned to look in that direction. When he did so, he saw one of the books a shelf or two down glowing. Since this happened the last time he tried to find the book, he walked over there immediately, knowing it'd be the one they needed. He slid it off the shelf and onto the floor.

Sage walked over to join him. "Did you find it?"

"Yeah. It was glowing again, like last time."

"Interesting."

Cye cleared off, then picked up the little side table that was next to a chair he had sat in before, and brought it over to Rowen. "Here, set it on this so we don't have to sit on the floor."

"Oh, good idea." The blue haired boy picked up the book and set it on the table, then began flipping through the pages to find the story they had read before.

As they were doing that, Shi, Hito and the woman had been discussing something between themselves. When their conversation was over, Hito nodded and left the room. Shi and the woman turned back to their guests to see if they made any progress.

"Here it is!" Rowen read through the story again, aloud, but paused before the ending.

"What is it, Ro?" Ryo asked.

"Hm, well... It says here that the husband and wife died in a fire. Like it's implying that the house went up in flames while they were in it, but there's really no info on that other than it was a fire and they died in it."

"Does that mean," Cye started, "That we have to burn the ghost before he's gone for good?"

"That would be too difficult, I think."

"Kento's right, Cye," Sage said, "He could just disappear before the fire even got to him and it's possible that we'd go up in the flames instead."

"I see. Then it would have to be something of his that he's closely attached to."

"In that case," Shi interjected, "I'd suggest his portrait. It's probably where he goes to recharge, so to speak."

"I'd have to agree with Shi," the woman said. "He's said before, when he was still alive, that he was quite beside himself at how well that picture was done. _I'm _quite tired of looking at it, though."

"I bet." Rowen looked back at the story, then frowned a little, turning back towards their two hosts. "Why do I get the feeling that you two have something to do with this story?"

Shi glanced at the woman quickly before addressing Rowen. "That would be because Miss Reina and I are from that story. The whole thing is truth."

Five pairs of eyes stared at them, stunned to hear that. This meant that the twins and Reina were siblings, though they shouldn't have been too surprised at that; they three did resemble each other. The story being true also meant that the man had murdered the twins.

__No wonder they never said his name, even though they knew who it was.__ Kento thought.

Reina smiled sadly at their reaction. "It's shocking, I know, but there's not really much to be done about it now."

"That's true," Sage agreed. "But now that we know what to do, we can at least stop him from hurting any more people."

"Right!" Ryo said. "And also, where did your brother go?"

"He's watching the man in order to see when the best time to destroy the portrait will be."The black haired boy nodded. "Good thinking."

At that moment, a stomach growled and everyone turned to see Cye looking sheepish. "Ah, sorry. I guess being possessed made me hungry."

Shi laughed and motioned for them to follow him. "No problem, I'll get you something to eat."

The group followed Shi out of the library and back down to the kitchen.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: **I surprised myself with how far I've gotten with this fic. =D Especially since, with how my event list worked out, there is _one chapter left_! =O Will definitely be posting that one on Thursday. 3

0000

It was sometime later they were still sitting around the table in the kitchen. Surprisingly, Frederick hadn't been back to bother them since the last time. The group of boys weren't taking any chances, however, and while they seemed to be relaxed, at least one of them had an eye or an ear towards the door just in case. While they waited for Hito to return, Shi and Reina had told them stories from when they were alive and without Frederick.

"Woo," Kento said, after taking a drink of water. "Sounds like you guys had quite a time back then. What with all the sparring and picnics and all."

Reina smiled. "We did. Times were so much better before I met Mr. Possessive Ass."

"Miss Reina, please leave that language to Hito."

Rowen nudged Shi with his elbow, grinning. "Aw, c'mon, man. After all he put her an' us through, she's allowed to tell the truth."

Shi sighed and shook his head, hiding a smile behind his teacup.

"So how long has it been since he went to spy on Mr. Sunny Disposition, anyway?"

Kento snorted. "Who knows, Ry. Time's so wonky in this house it could literally be like two minutes."

"I don't think it's _that _bad, Kento." Cye couldn't help but chuckle at that, even though the other teen was, at least, pretty close to the truth.

A few moments later, Hito materialized and propped himself against the counter. He waited a moment to see if anyone realized he was suddenly there.

"So what is he up to?"

Hito stuck out his bottom lip in a mock pout. "Aw, no fair! Someone else was supposed to notice I showed up."

Reina laughed and turned towards him. "Hito, you know you can't sneak up on Shi; you two are too close."

"Yeah, but still."

Cye just shook his head and set his cup down. "As your brother asked, though, what is he up to?"

"Oh, right." He straightened and pointed a finger in the air. "Now is the time to strike! He's somewhere around the back of the house being all angry and stuff trying to figure out what to do next." Hito rolled his eyes. "It's pathetic, really."

Ryo stood up. "Then let's hurry and burn his portrait while he's distracted. I'd _really _like to go home."

The others agreed and it wasn't long after before the group made their way up to the small room where both portraits were. It was a little crowded with them all in there, but they figured that it would be better than someone standing in the hall and meeting Frederick before they had a chance to accomplish their goal. For several moments, no one seemed to want to move, and they just stared at the almost sourness of the face before them. But, if they wanted to go home, they had to get this done. Thinking as such, Sage reached up and slipped the portrait off its perch on the wall. That was when they realized something important.

"Oh crap, we don't have anything to light it on fire with!" Kento smacked himself in face. "How could we forget that?"

"Ryo, can't you do something?"

Ryo raised an eyebrow at Rowen. "You know just as well as I do that I can't."

"Damn."

Reina chuckled softly. "Don't worry, boys, I can help you with that." She held out a hand and a lit candle faded into it with a faint bluish glow.

"Wonderful!" Sage held bottom corner of the painting in the flame and waited for it to catch fire.

"Oh, wait..." Cye retrieved a decorative bowl that was on a nearby stand and brought it over. He held it under the portrait. "Wouldn't want him to somehow pull back together because his ashes were on the floor."

"Good idea, kid." Hito said, and made the bowl float there so that, should it happen, Cye wouldn't get icky Frederick ashes on him. Cye thanked him greatly for it.

The flame took to the wood frame almost immediately and quickly spread up to the canvas. Shi had to suspend the portrait in the air so that Sage wouldn't get burned. As the flames ate away at the shoulders in the portrait, they suddenly heard an awful wailing from elsewhere in the house. The higher the flame got, the louder the cry. Cye had to cover his ears to block it out, though it ultimately didn't do him any good.

"What the hell is that?" Rowen had tried to cover his ears, as well, and was currently looking towards the door.

"Who cares what it is? I want it to _stop_!" The ashy haired teen almost felt like he was going to be sick, listening to that. However, he kept watching the burning portrait, not wanting to miss its total demise.

"I think," Sage started, doing his best to concentrate on the flames and not the sound. "That it's that guy. Sounds like he's feeling the effects of the fire."

"You would be correct." Shi said. He, Hito, and Reina seemed to be the only ones not affected by the wailing.

"Since he's rather attached to this painting, his soul is, as well. So by burning it, it's akin to throwing it out into the graveyard."

"But more effective."

The wailing intensified ten-fold as the flames reached the portrait's neck and the five boys had to hunker down, pressing their hands against their ears and clamping their eyes shut in a futile effort to block it out. A painful ten minutes later, the last corner's ashes fell into the bowl and the wailing died out completely.

Once it was completely silent for a few moments, the boys slowly stood up and looked around. After reassuring themselves that Frederick was gone for good, they started relaxing.

Rowen eyed the still floating bowl suspiciously. "Is he _really _gone for good? He's not gonna pop out of there and get us, right?"

"Gone for good." Reina made the candle disappear. "The end of the wailing signified that."

"Um, just to be safe... Let's go toss that outside. I don't like the idea of being in here with it."

"That's actually not a bad idea, Ro."

"Thanks, Sage."

Reina thought about it for two seconds two long. "I actually agree with that as well. Ensuring that he'll never come back is worth the extra effort."

"Let's go now!" Rowen quickly started for the door.

Ryo laughed at Rowen's enthusiasm and headed after them, the others not far behind. Downstairs, Cye looked around, making doubly sure the man wasn't going to suddenly show up an attack them. Kento and Shi reassured him that things were okay now, while Hito opened the front door.

Rowen positioned himself to throw the bowl out, but stopped before actually doing so. He turned to Reina and offered her the bowl. "Here, you do it. He caused you the most grief."

"Are you sure? You were rather eager to do it, yourself."

"Yeah, go on." He grinned and offered the bowl again.

"Well, if you insist~" She took the bowl and tossed it like a frisbee out the door. The smile on her face grew brighter as she watched the offending object sail out of

Kento let out a low whistle. "Good toss!"

"Why thank you." Reina let out a little giggle.

Hito shut the door after Reina moved away from it, then rubbed his hands together. "Shall we proceed to the best part, then?"

"You mean finally getting out of here? Yes, please!"

The group laughed at Cye's eagerness, but agreed that they wanted to hurry up and get home, too. On that note, three spirits led the teens back up the stairs and down to the room Cye's painting was based on. When they had all gathered inside, Ryo looked around, confused. A quick look at his friends showed that they felt the same way.

"I'm not sure I get how we're supposed to get home from this room."

"Oh, that's easy. Here, I'll show you." Hito went to the wall opposite the chair and tugged on a thin string no one noticed before.

As he did so, a section of the wall bunched up and slid over, like a curtain, towards him. Behind this curtain of wall, sat a painting that matched in size the one Cye had brought home. Only, the subject matter was more than familiar in this one. Staring back at the teens was their very own hallway, which was lit up as if the sun was up. The five of them stood there in silence for a few moments, almost not believing what was before them. Shi, Hito, and Reina smiled (grinned, in Hito's case) at them. Hito, at least, was amused by their reaction.

Sage tore his gaze away to address their hosts. "Is... is this for _real_?"

"You bet!" Hito lightly patted the painting's frame. "This is where I brought you guys in from."

"Why didn't you tell us this _sooner_? We could have been home safe and sound by now!"

Ryo placed a hand on Kento's shoulder. "Calm down, Ken. I'm sure there's a reason for that."

"Indeed," Shi answered, this time. "It goes back to that man."

"I had planned on taking you home a lot earlier, but his appearance shot that to hell."

"We couldn't risk him seeing this and being able to step into your world to wreak havoc."

Hito shivered a bit. "Too horrible to think about."

"But now that he's gone, we can obviously show you. Which we did."

Rowen listened carefully, trying to see if he could tell the two apart by how they spoke. It wasn't easy and soon he just gave up and concentrated on the matters at hand. "So does that mean we can go back now?"

This time, Reina nodded. "Yes, of course."

"All you have to do is step in." He puts his arm into the painting as demonstration.

"Interesting."

Reina moved forward and hugged each boy in turn. "Thank you so much for helping us get rid of him. There's no telling how much longer we would have endured sharing a space with him."

"You're very welcome." Cye smiled softly and gave her a good hug back. "We really couldn't have done it without your help, either."

Kento walked closer to the painting and experimentally dipped his fingers into it. When nothing horrible happened, he turned and grinned at his friends before climbing through, fully. The teen dropped to the floor as if he were being pushed out of an unbreakable soap bubble. After standing up and dusting off his knees, he gave his painted friends a double thumbs up.

Seeing as Kento made it home okay, the other four bid the three ghosts goodbye and followed each other into the painting. They stood there in the hallway, silent, as if they weren't sure this was real. But it was, and once that hit them, they cheered loudly and gave each other a big group hug.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: **OMG, I _finally _finished this thing! *dances for joy. JOY* It only took me, what, two or three years? X_x *lol* Soooooo happy this thing is finially finished. *plasters hearts all over it* Anyway, this is more of an epilogue than an _actual_ chapter, but still. =3

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As the five of them were cheering and hugging, none of them noticed their three new friends fade from the painting. That also went double for a sudden drop in temperature, although that was most like more due to it not lasting long rather than to just their not paying attention.

After their relief of being home had, at least, subsided a bit, Cye turned to the painting and pointed at it. "_You _gave us a lot of trouble and for that you _will _be punished."

Rowen gave Cye a weird look. "Er, Cye...? The three of them _helped _remember?"

"Yeah," Kento agreed. "And we got rid of that guy. There isn't really any reason to blame them now."

"Oh, I know that. I was talking to the painting itself." Cye crossed his arms and gave the painting a stern look.

"I think being possessed messed with your mind, Cye." Ryo shook his head and turned to fully assess the offending object. "However, I do think the painting needs to go."

"Right! Which is why I propose the punishment to be a fun filled burning at the stake, as it were."

Sage raised an eyebrow at the slow grin that spread itself across Cye's face. He had to admit he didn't see that particular expression on him a lot, if at all. However, he fully agreed that the painting should be burned and said so.

Kento rubbed his hands together gleefully. "Let's get this show on the road! It looks like it's still light out and it should be trash day tomorrow."

"I concur." Sage said.

Ryo and Kento took the painting off the wall and the group walked out to the driveway. As Sage went to get the trashcan, and Rowen bolted back into the house for a stick lighter, the rest of the boys began breaking apart the painting for a more easier burning. Sage placed the can nearby and when Rowen got back, the boys took turns lighting a piece on fire, then dropping it in the can. When all the pieces were sufficiently burned, they put out what was left of the fire. Kento plopped the lid on and carried it to the curb for pick up the next day. The five boys headed back inside.

"Since this is a very special occasion," Cye said. "I'm making you guys a feast!" More cheering ensued. "Go ahead and clean up and I'll get started."

They needed no other invitation and, in varying degrees, bounded up the stairs to freshen up. About ten minutes later, the boys were seated at the table and starting to enjoy Cye's cooking.

Later that night, they happily snuggled into their own beds and drifted off pretty quickly to, hopefully, have good dreams. While they were hunkering down for the night, three people faded into view in a small guest bedroom. This room will make them a fine home from now on. They each chose a spot as their own and settled in.

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It had been a very fitful night's sleep and he, or one, was very grateful for it. As he made his way towards the bathroom, he couldn't help but glance at the spot the painting had been. Or should he say 'was'? He doubled take'd so hard it felt like his head was going to whip off and hit Ryo's door. After his wonderful night's sleep, this was the last thing he wanted to see in the morning. So, he did what he felt was best for the situation. He screamed.

The screaming woke up everyone else and soon they were all stampeding to where it was coming from. Ryo, of course, got there first and saw Rowen staring in horror at the wall. __That's where the painting was. But why is he screaming at an empty wall?__ Ryo got his answer as he got close enough to see. His eyes widened an he, too, stared at the wall.

When the others arrived, they all gave some kind of surprised exclamation. On the wall was the same painting they had just burned the day before. Except, as Sage noted, this one was a lot smaller and the gloominess of the original was completely gone. It looked like a cheery little room on a bright, sunny day. __What the hell...?__

Suddenly, they all heard loud laughter coming somewhere from the back of the house. Kento could have sworn it was one of the twins. The one who had took to scaring him when they had first woken up in the painting. He didn't like that laugh at _all_.

THE END~


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